SOMETHING ON HIS MIND

Last September, Luis Ortiz sought medical treatment for a terrible headache and nausea. He slipped into a coma and when he woke up he was told a tapeworm larva was living deep in his brain. (For the case of a British man with the same problem, see FT324:8-9.) Ortiz, 26, from Napa, California, said doctors told him he needed immediate surgery. Once extracted, it was still wiggling and moving around. Ortiz, who was released from hospital before Hallowe’en, said his recovery had been a difficult and long-drawn-out process. He had suffered some memory loss and been forced to stop attending Sacramento State University, where he was a student, and move back home with his parents. For now, he can’t drive or work. Despite the ongoing ordeal, Ortiz said he’s just grateful to be alive. “My memory is like a work in progress,” he said.

The tapeworm larva was still wiggling and moving around

His neurosurgeon, Dr Soren Singel, said he 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; another 30 minutes and “he would have been dead,” Singel said. “It was a close call.” Tapeworm eggs had probably entered Ortiz’s intestine from something he ate and eventually the single larva made it into his brain. The condition of larval cysts in the brain is called neurocysticercosis. [AP] BBC News, 5 Nov; Huffington Post, 6 Nov 2015.

A Chinese toddler needed