{"id":774024,"date":"2026-07-01T20:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/774024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T20:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:44:22","slug":"british-tourist-left-with-38-parasites-in-her-brain-after-india-holiday-in-absolutely-disgusting-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/774024\/","title":{"rendered":"British tourist left with 38 parasites in her brain after India holiday in ‘absolutely disgusting’ discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cardiff woman has opened up on her shock after discovering 38 parasites living inside her brain following a holiday in India. <\/p>\n

Lowri Denman, 42, found a metre-long tapeworm while using a restaurant toilet, describing it as “absolutely disgusting, like Sellotape with like little ridges in it”.<\/p>\n

The gruesome find was her first indication of neurocysticercosis, a rare brain infection caused by pork tapeworm larvae that triggers severe headaches, seizures and psychosis.<\/p>\n

Her consultant, Dr Brendan Healy, a specialist in infectious diseases and microbiology, believes she contracted the infection during a three-month journey through India in 2007.<\/p>\n

Despite deliberately avoiding meat throughout her travels to prevent food poisoning, Dr Healy suspects she unknowingly ingested pork containing microscopic tapeworm eggs.<\/p>\n

Only a handful of people in Britain receive this diagnosis every year.<\/p>\n

Three years passed before the tapeworm emerged in 2010, and Ms Denman flushed it away without realising its significance.<\/p>\n

She visited her GP, but stool tests returned normal results and she felt healthy, so she carried on with her life.<\/p>\n

\"Tapeworm\"\/<\/p>\n

Lowri Denman, 42, found a metre-long tapeworm while using a restaurant toilet<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Within 12 months, however, debilitating headaches began plaguing her.<\/p>\n

Her first seizure struck in 2011, leaving her struggling to form words before losing consciousness.<\/p>\n

“The next thing I came around and I was in an ambulance and I was like: ‘How has that happened? Why?'” she recalled.<\/p>\n

After she underwent brain scans in hospital, doctors delivered devastating news.<\/p>\n

HOLIDAYS FROM HELL – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/p>\n

Dr Brendan Healy believes she contracted the infection during a three-month journey through India in 2007<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

“The doctor sat me down and said: ‘Right, okay, we’ve looked at your scans and we’ve found 38 parasites on your brain’,” the 42-year-old said.<\/p>\n

Physicians initially suspected toxoplasmosis, but her mother connected the seizure to the tapeworm discovery, leading to the correct diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Ms Denman spent a fortnight in hospital receiving anti-parasitic medication and steroids.<\/p>\n

Treatment initially appeared successful, allowing her to travel to New Zealand, relocate to Bristol, participate in circus classes and complete half marathons.<\/p>\n

\"Steroids\"\/<\/p>\n

Ms Denman spent a fortnight in hospital receiving anti-parasitic medication and steroids<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Then she collapsed at work, with scans revealing significant swelling around the parasites in her brain.<\/p>\n

Confusion, numbness and tingling sensations followed, forcing her to abandon her career and move in with her father in Carmarthen.<\/p>\n

Steroids changed her physical appearance, and as her world shrank, her mental health deteriorated catastrophically.<\/p>\n

“This paranoia and psychosis started kicking in there was severe anxiety, panic attacks,” she said, spending six weeks in a neuropsychiatric facility.<\/p>\n

\"Pork<\/p>\n

Dr Healy suspects she unknowingly ingested pork containing microscopic tapeworm eggs<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Her friend of two decades, Nicola Brown, was shocked by the transformation after a month apart.<\/p>\n

“I walked into the room and she was essentially behaving like a child,” she recalled. <\/p>\n

“Crawling around on the floor, hiding behind a curtain, sitting on her dad’s lap as if she was five.”<\/p>\n

The visit ended with Ms Denman swearing at her friend and telling her never to return, later sending a text claiming police were pursuing her.<\/p>\n

Recovery proved lengthy and arduous, with the 42-year-old completing an art foundation course in Carmarthen before feeling strong enough by 2018 to return to Cardiff for an interior design degree.<\/p>\n

She resumed working in 2022, and the parasites have now calcified in her brain without requiring surgical removal.<\/p>\n

Dr Healy described her as a once-in-a-career patient whose case had been discussed by leading experts in Britain and the US. <\/p>\n

Ms Denman has been seizure-free since 2017, though she will take epilepsy medication for the rest of her life. <\/p>\n

“What I want to do now is progress in my life and spread awareness of this disease and do something positive with it,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cardiff woman has opened up on her shock after discovering 38 parasites living inside her brain following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[117556,49,48,84,44,12384,29604,883],"class_list":["post-774024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-across-the-uk","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-wales","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}