Man's seizure turned out to be tapeworm in his brain

In a scenario ripped straight out of your nightmares, doctors discovered a man who had tapeworms burrowed into his brain after ingesting feces-contaminated food years before. 

A case study published in The New England Journal of Medicine said the 38-year-old patient from Massachusetts was disoriented, held an involuntary upward gaze and could not respond to commands.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted various exams to locate the source of his seizures. Tests showed he had a parasitic infection called cysticercosis, a condition that can cause seizures if it spreads to the brain.

A person gets cysticercosis by “swallowing eggs found in the feces of a person who has an intestinal tapeworm,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The highest rates of cysticercosis are found in areas that have poor sanitation and free-range pigs that have access to human feces, according to the CDC.

Tapeworms from undercooked meat: Doctors discover hundreds of tapeworms in man’s brain after he ate undercooked pork

The studies conducted showed the man had three brain lesions and researchers believed he’s lived with the tapeworms for the past 20 years. The patient was admitted to the neurosciences intensive care unit and given levetiracetam therapy, a medicine often used for epilepsy.

Twelve hours after he was admitted, the patient was extubated and discharged five days later with no further seizure activity.