Worm on the Brain

April 13 — An Arizona woman says she's feeling good, a little more than a week after undergoing six hours of surgery to remove a worm that had lodged in her brain.

[Excerpts:]

However Becerra ingested the parasite, it attached itself as an egg to her intestinal wall. Eventually, the egg developed into the worm, which moved into her blood stream and to her brain, said Dr. Joseph Sirven, who operated on Becerra. Once in the brain, the worm causes little harm until it eventually dies and decays, thereby inflaming surrounding tissue. "It's after the worm dies that the body reacts to something foreign," Sirven explained.

Although Becerra seems to have kept a good attitude — she even gave the worm a nickname, Tonya — she said the seizures it caused were devastating. She reached a point where she could no longer tolerate them.

Beccera underwent the six-hour procedure last week — awake the entire time. She received only acupuncture and a mild anesthesia to deal with the pain.

The World Health Organization says neurocysticercosis is a common cause of epilepsy in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), April 20, 2001

Answers

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), April 20, 2001.

That ice pick through the orbital bone and into the brain is looking better and better all the time.

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), April 20, 2001.

Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I'm just going to go home and eat some worms.

NOT

-- Enlightenment (gone@away.now), April 20, 2001.

Moral to the story: stay away from the pork tacos and the street vendors in Mexico, not to mention the ice picks!

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), April 20, 2001.

Another weird brain affliction--

larsguy@yahoo.com), April 20, 2001.

try again, rare brain amoeba kills 3 yr old girl

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 20, 2001.