The runny nose of the North Carolina man turns out to be a leaking of cerebral fluid

JOHNSTON COUNTY, N.C. –

The last Thanksgiving was ruined for Greg Phillpotts and his family after the unexpected.

The liquid from his nose ran down into the food.

"I was preparing a meal and I was standing in the kitchen, everything was added to the ingredients, it ruined everything for dinner," said Phillpotts, who left New York for Johnston County two days ago. years. "You could be anywhere, you could be on the plane, you could talk to anyone, and that thing would come out of your face."

Phillpotts said he fought what he thought were allergies in the past five years. Some doctors have also diagnosed him with pneumonia and bronchitis.

"I stuffed the tissues in my nose," he said. "It became normal until February because I stayed up all night, you're sitting here, you're a father, you do not want to ignore the picture when it's something that someone One could easily fix it. "

Finally, he saw Dr. Alfred Iloreta at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. They quickly learned that it was a leak of cerebrospinal fluid.

"It's the leakage of fluid that surrounds the brain to cushion it primarily to protect it from shock, trauma or something like that," Dr. Iloreta said. "Sometimes, when the fluid comes out of the brain, there is an ascending infection, and the bacteria can move from the nose to the brain, causing meningitis."

The doctors practiced minimally invasive skull surgery using a flap of tissue taken from Phillpotts' body to correct the problem.

"Have you ever been so congested that you can not breathe?" Phillpotts said. "Suddenly, you can breathe again and what a relief it was!"

Dr. Iloreta said to be careful if you have a runny nose on one side of your nostril; if a salty taste is associated with it and all this is accompanied by an intense headache.

It could be more than just a runny nose.