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[h1]Doctors find worm in woman's brain while operating on 'tumour'[/h1]
Doctors carrying out an operation to remove a woman's 'brain tumour' got a surprise - when they came across a live worm instead.
Rosemary Alvarez, from Arizona in the US, underwent surgery after experiencing numbness in her arm and blurred vision.
The woman was given a cat scan, as doctors expected to find a tumour, but the results came up clear.
It wasn't until she had an MRI that they saw something disturbing. They decided to operate and found the worm penetrating her brain.
Surgeons expecting to find a tumour instead found a worm penetrating a woman's brain
After he made the discovery, neurosurgeon Dr Peter Nakaji said: 'I'm sure this is a very strange response for the people in the operating room.'
'It was something down in her brain stem which is as deep in the brain as you can be.'
Doctors removed the worm and do not believe Alvarez will have any lingering health problems.
No one knows exactly where she picked up the worm - doctors say they can come from eating undercooked pork or spread by people who do not wash their hands after using the toilet.
Rosemary Alvarez is expected to make a full recovery following her operation
'It only takes one person who is spreading it constantly to get a lot of people exposed and some of those people are going to go on to develop this problem,' Dr Nakaji said.
Ms Alvarez hopes people learn this lesson from her story.
'Wash your hands, wash your hands,' she said.
