As every parent knows, kids occasionally get headaches and sometimes throw up, however, after six months of regular headaches and projectile vomiting, one mom knew it was time to take her little boy to the hospital.
At first, doctors ran some routine tests, but found nothing out of the ordinary when the results showed the 12-year-old’s heart and lungs were fine, had normal muscle strength, and had normal reflexes and sensitivity. The doctors were running out of ideas since the boy was not experiencing any seizures, dizziness or fever, and finally decided to take a few MRI scans to see if maybe there were any tumors in his head.
Instead of a tumor, the scan revealed the 12-year-old actually had a large cyst in the right side of his brain. “The MRI findings were suggestive of a hydatid cyst,” the doctors explained.
A hydatid cyst is caused by a tapeworm, called a hydatid worm or dog tapeworm, which normally occurs in the liver and lungs and in rare cases occurs in the brain. As doctors took a closer look at the scan, they could see that the cyst was filled with tapeworm eggs, which could rupture at any moment.
The 12-year-old was rushed straight into surgery where doctors removed part of his skull to get to the cyst, and successfully removed it. Three months later, doctors took new scans of the boy’s brain, and thankfully there were no new cysts or tapeworm eggs.
Did you know vomiting, headaches, and vision blur could be a sign of a hydatid cyst? Let us know in the comments below, and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured image: press.psprings.co.uk]
Parasitic Tapeworm Lays Eggs Inside Little Boy’s Brain is an article from: LifeDaily