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A New York woman prepared for a long battle with brain cancer had shocking news when doctors finally opened her skull.
Rachel Palma, 42, was suffering from strange symptoms that led doctors to scan her brain – and when the images came back, they seemed to show that a brain tumor had rooted.
But the reality was even more frightening.
As reported by WCYB, the doctors spotted a lesion that looked a lot like a tumor the size of a marble. Palma and his family prepared for the seemingly inevitable fight against the disease, which was to include a surgical procedure followed by a series of chemotherapies and radiation therapies. It was at this time that doctors discovered that it was not a brain tumor, but a parasite.
When the surgeons operated on Palma's brain, they found that there was no tumor. The lesion that appeared on the sweeps of his brain was actually a firm mass that did not correspond to any cancerous growth. Once the offending object was removed, the doctors opened it to see its internal structure – and were greeted with a horrifying look.
"A tapeworm baby has come out of this lesion," said Dr. Jonathan Rasouli, chief resident in neurosurgery at Icahn Medical School, at WCYB.
The good news is that once the parasite was eliminated, Palma no longer needed treatment, unlike what it would have suffered in case of cancer, but the way she managed to get her into the brain remains a mystery. It's rare, but humans can get parasites by eating tiny tapeworm eggs, which can be transmitted from the stool of a person who has parasites in the gut.
You can reduce your risk of parasitic infection by making sure your fruits and vegetables are thoroughly washed before eating and that all meat is thoroughly cooked before eating.
Palma says that she will never know how she was infected with the parasite, but her symptoms were relieved after her elimination. She is now "basically healed," she says.
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