Chinese Doctor Finds Live Tapeworm Inside Woman’s Eye After She Ate Raw Meat

A Chinese woman’s love for “exotic” food may have led to her contracting a parasitic infection after she reportedly ingested a tapeworm from uncooked meat.

Surgeons from a hospital in Jiangsu, China pulled out a 2-inch-long live tapeworm from the eye socket of the patient identified only by her last name Yang.

According to the doctors, the worm may have traveled from her stomach to the different areas in her body before eventually ending up in her brain, JiangsuTV reports via MailOnline.

Yang said that she consulted an eye specialist in Nantong in Jiangsu Province last week after her eyes started to swell. She was feeling some discomfort in her right eye almost a month prior to her consultation.

Her ophthalmologist Dr. Gong Yegang recommended surgery as his initial findings attributed the swelling of Yang’s eyes from either an inflammation or a benign tumor.

However, instead of finding a lump during the surgery, Dr. Gong discovered a tapeworm in the socket of Yang’s right eye.

“It was about five centimeters (2 inches) long when I pulled it out,” Gong was quoted as saying.

Yang later told her doctor that she loved eating “exotic animals.”

“I had eaten snakes before, I am not sure if this could be the reason for this,” said Yang.

Dr. Gong then pointed out that the tapeworm’s larvae entered Yang’s system after she consumed uncooked meat. After hatching inside her body, the larvae grew and somehow got stuck in Yang’s eye.

“(The worm) could have moved along the intestines and traveled across her body. It could even have gone into her brain,” said Dr. Gong.

After her surgery, Yang was subjected to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to make sure there were no more worms residing in her head.

Yang, who is still waiting for the results of the scan, may immediately go home after the results indicate that she’s all well.

Featured Image via JSTV

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