This year's unusual medical reports include a variety of parasitic infections and unexpected consequences of breakdancing. (Image credit: wutwhanfoto via Getty Images)
Doctors sometimes encounter conditions so strange or rare that they write up their observations in scientific journals to share their findings. These medical case reports provide us with fascinating insights into unusual diseases and their treatments.
Here are 10 of the most amazing medical cases we wrote about in 2024.
1. A man's brain was infected with a worm after eating undercooked bacon.
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Bacon lovers should look away. A middle-aged man in the US got a nasty shock when he went to the doctor complaining of a migraine. It turned out he was infected with larvae of Taenia solium, a tapeworm that usually infects pigs. The larvae had entered the man’s brain in the form of small sacs, or cysts, causing swelling and pain in the back of his head. Doctors suspected he had become infected after eating undercooked, “soft” bacon and not washing his hands properly after going to the toilet.
2. Probiotic supplement causes deadly blood infection.
Many people take probiotics for a variety of reasons, including to support gut health and immune health. However, probiotics can sometimes cause blood infections known as probiotic-associated bacteremia; this most often occurs in people with weakened immune systems or gastrointestinal problems. This happened to a 70-year-old man in Japan who was prescribed probiotics to fight a bacterial infection that, along with other illnesses, led to his hospitalization. Bacteria from the supplement infected his blood, causing multiple organ failure and death.
3. Live worms grew under the woman's eyelid.
One of the parasitic worms found under the woman's right eyelid.
In another parasitic case, a 41-year-old woman from China repeatedly went to the hospital because she felt something was in her right eye. During her second visit, doctors found four live white worms under her eyelid. The worms were of the species Thelazia callipaeda, which causes the parasitic disease thelaziasis.
4. A woman discovered she had lung cancer after suddenly going blind
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