A California man who was feeling sick almost died recently from a shocking cause. 26-year-old Luis Ortiz went to a hospital because of a headache and nausea. When doctors examined him, they were shocked to find a tapeworm larva in his brain. The story gets stranger. The larva was still alive.
The creature had caused a cyst to form inside his head. The cyst was restricting the flow of liquids to different areas of his brain. The situation was so serious that doctors said they had to perform an emergency operation to remove the larva.
The Associated Press reports that a doctor who operated on Ortiz told him he had only 30 minutes to live. The California man told ABC News that when the doctor pulled the worm out of his head, it was still moving.
Luis Ortiz was a student at California State University in Sacramento. He began experiencing headaches in late August, he told a local newspaper. But Ortiz said he did not think the headaches were serious.
