Woman suffers organ damage from parasitic worm laying eggs inside her ... trends now
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A 33-year-old woman suffered a deadly liver rupture after a worm laid eggs inside her abdomen.
The farmer, from Tunisia, was infected with a parasite similar to the one believed to have infected the brain of US Presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Her case was revealed in a US medical journal this week by doctors who want to raise awareness about the infection that has been dubbed a silent killer.
The alarming symptoms that prompted the woman to visit the ER were severe stomach cramps, a fever and yellowing in her eyes and skin which persisted for three days.
Scans from an unnamed 33-year-old woman in Tunisia show the patient's liver. The arrow is pointing toward a small cyst and a blocked bile duct, which were caused by a tapeworm
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in 2012 that he experienced short-term memory loss and brain fogginess after a worm ate part of his brain then died
Blood tests revealed inflammatory markers called C-reactive proteins were more than 20 times the normal level, suggesting possible liver damage.
Doctors found that a cyst in her bile duct, which transports fluids to and from the liver, had ruptured.
The organ damage was later found to have been caused by a gruesome growth called Echinococcus granulosus - a two to seven-millimeter tapeworm.
The nasty parasite triggers the potentially deadly
