Joe Yates
A New England woman has survived the same horrific disease that paralyzed and later killed an Australian rugby player.
A 30-year-old has lived to tell the tale after contracting brain worms off the back of a three-week trip to Thailand, Japan and Hawaii, despite it taking almost two weeks since returning to the States before her diagnosis.
The woman, who has not been named, became the subject of a New England Journal of Medicine case study published on February 12.
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The 11-page paper saw doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, as well as the University of Washington, analyze the medical mystery - which saw the woman visit three hospitals before the culprit was found... rat lungworm.
Of course, we're familiar with the parasite, as a once-healthy 19-year-old Sam Ballard was dared by his friends to eat a slug, unbeknown to them that it was riddled with the horrific Angiostrongylus cantonensis - rat lungworm's medical name.
It caused him to suffer severe weakness and pain throughout his legs, and it then lead him to contract a strand of meningitis known as eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, a severe but treatable disease that further worsened his condition.
Sadly, he fell into a 420-day coma, and when he woke up, he was severely disabled, with doctors explaining how he was paralysed after the parasite escaped to his brain, and all he could do was control his breathing and eyelids.
That happened back in 2010, and it wasn't until 2018 that Sam passed away at the age of 29. His friends had told him at the time to eat the slug, but his mom insisted that she didn't blame them for what had happened, saying that they were 'just being mates'.
Like Sam, the New England woman also shared similar symptoms, as she complained that she felt a burning sensation in her feet which slowly progressed to her legs before reaching her core and through to her arms, with the slightest touch worsening the feeling.
A week passed until she booked herself into the ER complaining that her body felt like it was burning, while also suffering from a headache.
After a check-up, she was told everything seemed 'normal' and was advised to contact a physician.
The following day, she woke up in a daze and began packing for a vacation that didn't exist. A family member tried to explain to the confused woman that she did not have any holiday booked.
That was when they visited Massachusetts General Hospital, with staff there documenting that she had returned from her trip 12 days ago.
On that trip she ate cooked street food in Bangkok, raw sushi in Tokyo, as well as indulging in salad and sushi during her 10 days in Hawaii - where she also swam in the ocean.
It was then that doctors finally diagnosed her with having been infected with rat lungworm.
Now, rat lungworm expert Robert Cowie, a research professor at the University of Hawaii, has labeled doctors in the US as 'blissfully ignorant' about the rat lungworm disease.
He explained to The Washington Post that their ignorance could be fatal and result in the harm of patients, stressing that victims need to take anti-worm medication as a matter of urgency to prevent life-threatening consequences.