Man suffered splitting headaches for years. Turns out, tapeworms were living in his brain

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After years of splitting headaches, a Texas man's long-awaited diagnosis was something out of a Google symptoms search nightmare: The aches were caused by tapeworm larvae that had taken up space in his brain.

The cyst of tapeworms could've killed him if he had waited any later to seek help, said Dr. Jordan Amadio, a neurosurgeon at Austin's Ascension Seton Medical Center. Luckily, Amadio's patient, Gerardo Moctezuma, finally sought that help when his headaches sent him into dizzy fainting spells.

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It's very intense, very strong, because it made me sweat...from the pain," Moctezuma, 40, told CNN affiliate KXAN. The pain often drove him to vomit.

MRI images revealed life-threatening pressure in Moctezuma's brain -- the result of tapeworm larvae that became lodged in the brain's fourth ventricle, filled with cerebrospinal fluid.

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What's more, Amadio said the parasite likely entered Moctezuma's body while he was living in Mexico. But he'd moved to the US more than 14 years before his diagnosis -- so the tapeworm larvae might've been living in his body for more than a decade.

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Moctezuma made a full recovery after brain surgery, his doctor said. He's headache-free and back to work -- but his case is a reminder that just because neurocysticercosis rare doesn't mean it's impossible.

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