Snake-consuming China man struck down by spinal cord parasites 15 years after ingesting reptile gallbladders and wine
- Traditional snake treatment leaves man in wheelchair, needs help urinating
- Parasites multiply inside spinal cord for more than a decade, some 6cm long
A man in China has been hit by dizziness, headaches and nausea nearly 15 years after he ate raw snake gallbladders and drank medicinal wine soaked in raw snake skin.
The man’s health became so bad that he had to use a wheelchair and required a catheter to urinate, according to Yangcheng Evening News.
The source of his problems was snake parts that left strange orange parasites in his spinal cord, said doctors at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in the south of the country.
“Faeces from the parasites have fully polluted the patient’s spinal cord,” said Huang Minjun, the doctor working on the case.
“The parasites have reproduced and grown a lot. Some worms were as long as 6cm. It was very horrible.”
Identified as Spirometra mansoni, the parasites are commonly found in snakes, frogs, cats, and dogs.