‘It’s wriggling’: NSW woman ‘world first’ python parasite patient

Doctors at Canberra Hospital have detailed the moment they discovered an “alive” creature in a patient’s brain in a world-first case.

A brain scan has revealed the horrifying cause of a woman’s unexplained sickness, but be warned, it’s a lot to stomach.

The 64-year-old, from New South Wales, was first admitted to hospital in January 2021 after enduring weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a relentless dry cough, fever and night sweats.

But by 2022, her symptoms had wildly escalated, and now also included forgetfulness and depression.

It was only when she was referred to a neurosurgeon at Canberra Hospital that doctors performed an MRI and finally got to the bottom of her mysterious medical woes: an 8cm-long parasitic roundworm in her brain.

A NSW woman was admitted to Canberra Hospital after suffering with unexplained symptoms for more than a year. Picture: CDCP

Doctors discovered a worm, usually found in python snakes, ‘alive and wriggling’ in her brain. Picture: CDCP

Infectious diseases physician Dr Sanjaya Senanayake recalled the moment his colleague, Dr Hari Priya Bandi, called to share the unfathomable discovery – telling The Guardian it was “alive and wriggling”.

“Neurosurgeons regularly deal with infections in the brain, but this was a once-in-a-career finding. No one was expecting to find that,” he told the publication.

Doctors quickly operated to remove the roundworm, but were initially unable to figure out how the woman had contracted it.

“Canberra is a small place, so we sent the worm, which was still alive, straight to the laboratory of a CSIRO scientist who is very experienced with parasites,” Senanayake said. “He just looked at it and said, ‘Oh my goodness, this is Ophidascaris robertsi’.”

The 64-year-old had the creature removed, with experts suspecting it entered her body after she used native grasses in her cooking. Picture: CDCP

The case is a world-first, with the patient said to be ‘recovering well’. Picture: Toby Zerna

Ophidascaris robertsi is a parasite usually found in pythons, making the Australian patient the world’s first case of it being found in humans.

Researchers concluded the patient, who lives near a lake inhabited by carpet pythons, had contracted the roundworm after collecting native grasses, including warrigal greens, from around the lake to use in cooking, The Guardian reported.

Thankfully, the woman is now “recovering well” but is being closely monitored, Senanayake said.

The rare case has been documented in the September edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases which noted researchers were exploring whether a pre-existing medical condition that leaves sufferers immunocompromised could have led to the bizarre contraction.

Originally published as ‘It’s wriggling’: NSW woman ‘world first’ python parasite patient