If you've made it past the headline, you deserve to know more.
That's right, a 26-year-old Napa man went to the Queen of the Valley Medical Center ER with an awful headache and nausea, went into a coma and when he woke up was told there was a tapeworm larva living in his brain. (I tend not to use italics, but it seemed like emphasis was needed in this case.)
The Associated Press picks up the story:
College student Luis Ortiz, 26, of Napa said doctors told him he needed immediate surgery to remove it.
"I was shocked," Ortiz said. "I just couldn't believe something like that would happen to me. I didn't know there was a parasite in my head trying to ruin my life."
The surgery and the aftermath have greatly impacted his life, Ortiz said. He had to drop out of school, move back home and find a temporary place for his dog. He can't drive or work.
"My memory is like a work in progress," he said. "It gets better from therapy," but he has to remind himself to do his memory exercises and other daily tasks.
Ortiz's neurosurgeon, Dr. Soren Singel, said Ortiz was lucky he arrived at the hospital when he did.
The worm was forming in a cyst that was blocking the flow of water to chambers in his brain, "like a cork in a bottle," Singel told the Napa Valley Register.
Another 30 minutes of that blockage, and "he would have been dead," Singel said. "It was a close call."
Ortiz said his headaches began in late August and he didn't think much of it at first.
"I just ignored it," said Ortiz, who was attending California State University, Sacramento.
During the first days of September, Ortiz had been skateboarding on a warm day when the pain increased. When he arrived at his mother's house, he appeared disoriented and began to vomit. She rushed him to the hospital.
By now I'm sure you're wondering how a tapeworm larva got to Ortiz's brain in the first place.
Here's how he did not get it: He did not get it from eating undercooked pork.