Before that, she experienced amnesia and depression, stomach discomfort, diarrhoea, and night sweats.
The woman was brought to the hospital in January 2021. By 2022, her symptoms had progressed, forcing doctors to admit her to a hospital in Canberra.
An MRI scan of her brain revealed a parasitic roundworm, a motile helminth, residing in the right frontal lobe. The only choice was surgery, and surgeons were able to effectively remove the roundworm, which measured 8 cm in length and 1mm in diameter.
Hari Priya Bandi, the neurosurgeon in charge of the case, described it as a "mystery" when it was originally given to her team. She described a "distinct abnormality" in her brain that was quickly evolving over time.
Bandi used forceps to remove the unknown object from the brain. She said, "To my surprise, there was a linear, wiggly red line... We saw it moving!"
The worm was transferred to Canberra's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), where it was "still rapidly moving... and in three days' time it was still wiggling quite happily."
The case is unparalleled in medical history and has been recorded in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The worm was identified as a third-stage larva of the Ophidascaris robertsi worm species. This parasitic worm often dwells in the digestive tracts of carpet pythons native to New South Wales, Australia.
Doctors believe the lady accidentally ate a worm's eggs by eating edible grass infected with snake faeces, but the exact source is unknown. Following the hatching of the eggs within her body, doctors suspect the larvae travelled to her brain, maybe influenced by the medicine she was taking, which impaired her immune system.