Napa Man's Headache Turned Out to Be Tapeworm Larvae in His Brain

Imagine going to the hospital for a splitting headache and waking up with a tapeworm larvae removed from you brain. Sounds like a horror movie plot, but it happened to a Napa college student.

Luis Ortiz was visiting his parents in Napa in September when his headache, which was persistent since August, got worse and he was rushed to the hospital, according to the Napa Valley Register.

His doctors told him he had a tapeworm larvae in his brain and needed immediate neurosurgery.

Ortiz’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Soren Singel, said Ortiz made it to the hospital in the nick of time. Another 30 minutes, “he would have been dead,” he said. “It was a close call.”

“The worm was still wiggling when we pulled it out,” Singel told the Register.

People often get tapeworm from eating raw or undercooked contaminated beef or pork, according to the CDC. Ortiz’s strain was from pork, though his doctors say he did not have tapeworms.

For more on this story, visit the Napa Valley Register.