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[00:00.12] A brain doctor in Australia received a huge surprise during an operation on a patient’s brain last year:

[00:09.42] “Gosh, what is that, it’s moving.

[00:13.67] Take it out of my hands.”

[00:15.00] That is what Australian neurosurgeon Hari Priya Bandi said about finding a worm, or parasite, last year in a patient’s brain.

[00:26.69] Bandi was looking for the unexplained cause of symptoms in a 64-year-old woman.

[00:34.66] She found the cause after drilling a small hole in the woman’s skull and looking at her brain.

[00:43.16] Bandi performed the operation at Canberra Hospital in 2022.

[00:50.86] She discussed the discovery this week after publishing a study with Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

[01:02.01] The doctors said the worm was a roundworm native to Australia.

[01:11.31] It was about eight centimeters. Before the discovery, it was not known to affect humans.

[01:17.42] The worms are often found in carpet pythons, a kind of large snake found in Australia and on some Pacific islands.

[01:28.31] Senanayake was on duty at the hospital last year when the worm was found.

[01:34.42] “I got a call saying: ‘We’ve just removed a live worm from this patient’s brain,’” he said.

[01:43.72] The woman started medical treatment earlier in 2022 after saying she was experiencing depression and forgetfulness.

[01:54.87] Brain images showed changes over a three-month period.

[02:00.45] Bandi’s investigation was expected to show an infection or a cancerous tumor.

[02:09.75] Instead, she found the worm.

[02:12.40] “Everyone in that operating theater was absolutely stunned,” Senanayake said of the “wriggling” thing.

[02:21.44] Before the operation, the patient had come to a hospital in New South Wales with stomach sickness, pain, and sweats at night.

[02:33.12] Bandi said the patient did not show any problems from the worm removal.

[02:39.49] Her mental health is improving, too, but some problems continue.

[02:45.34] “She was so grateful to have an answer for what has been causing her trouble for so very long,” Bandi said.

[02:53.05] The patient has not been back to the hospital.

[02:56.50] Doctors gave her some medicine to kill parasites.

[03:00.48] Bandi said the doctors are continuing to watch the patient’s overall health.

[03:06.59] “We’re keeping a close eye on her,” Senanayake told an Australian broadcaster.

[03:12.43] The doctors believe the woman may have accidentally eaten the worm’s eggs.

[03:17.74] She lives in the same area as the carpet python.

[03:21.46] The python sheds the worms and their eggs in its waste.

[03:27.05] They believe it is possible that the woman gathered some native plants to eat, and they had the worm’s eggs on them.