Doctors find huge fist-sized parasite in 14-year-old boy's brain

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: The 14-year-old, whose name has not been identified, had been suffering from headaches and vomiting for a months before the macabre discovery in India and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)

Surgeons perform a procedure (stock image) (

Image: Getty Images)

A teenager miraculously escaped death after a parasitic tapeworm was found in his brain.

The 14-year-old, whose name has not been released, had been suffering from headaches and vomiting for a month before the grisly discovery.

He was rushed to hospital where doctors performed an MRI, revealing a massive cyst.

The schoolboy, from India, was diagnosed with a form of echinococcosis, an infectious disease caused by tapeworms and is thought to have contracted it after coming into contact with infected livestock or dog feces.

After undergoing a craniotomy, where a small hole is cut in the skull, revealing the brain, the large cyst was successfully removed.

Video footage shows doctors gently separating the cyst wall from the brain to prevent rupture.

According to local reports, the boy returned to school and resumed normal activities two weeks after being released, but the situation could have been fatal if not treated.

The cyst occupied almost a quarter of the patient's brain (

Picture:

Jam Press/The New England Journal of Medicine)