This is the moment a woman who had been suffering from stomach pains for a decade has a foot-long parasitic worm pulled out of her intestines.
Doctors at the Second People’s Hospital of Haining in East China’s Zhejiang Province discovered the giant roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) during a gastroscopy on 14th June.
Video Credit: AsiaWire
The patient named only as Ms Yang, aged 41, consulted experts at the facility after numerous previous hospital visits left her chronic abdominal pain untreated.
Doctor Li Juan advised that she agree to an endoscopy, and she made the shocking discovery in Ms Wang’s bowels.
The fat white roundworm, measuring 1 foot in length, was writhing inside the woman’s intestines, which appeared to have the “ideal conditions” to sustain its growth, the medic said.
Doctor Li grasped the parasite’s big head with a pair of raptor forceps and yanked the entire length of the roundworm out via the endoscopy incision.
Ms Yang revealed she had been suffering from stomach pains for 10 years.
“It would hurt on and off at first. It’s not always unbearable, but I would feel obvious discomfort in my stomach,” Ms Yang said.
Ms Yang is likely to have been suffering from Ascariasis, the most common infection of the giant roundworm in humans.
The condition, which is caused by poor sanitation, goes unnoticed in the majority of cases, especially if the number of worms is small.
However, symptoms in adults include abdominal swelling, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
In affected children, poor weight gain, malnutrition, and learning difficulties are observed.
Doctor Li, who claimed her nurses were also shocked by the find, admitted: “I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Her intestines provided the ideal conditions for the parasite to grow, but it was still surprising to see a case in person.”
Ms Yang revealed she grew up drinking uncooked water – thought to be a contributing factor to her Ascariasis.
But she and her family have been prescribed anthelmintic – or antiparasitic worm – drugs, as roundworms can spread through human faeces, Li said.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Asia Wire Report;
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