Monsters Inside Me

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

An exotic meal leaves a carpenter fighting for his life.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

The thought of a parasite crawling through my body, eating its way through was a little disconcerting.

HOST VO

The trip of a lifetime ends with an athletic adventurer fighting off a hidden killer

BRID POWER VO/OC

I was petrified.  I didn’t want something in my body that I had no control over and then wondering where is it?

HOST VO

And a soldier returns home to find his body has been invaded by a hideous monster.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I reached between my leg.  I pulled on something and it came out.

HOST VO

Three cunning parasites, all with one brilliant strategy.  They hitch a ride inside their hosts, feeding, thriving, undetected.  They are hungry; they are hiding, they are the stowaways.  Worms invisible to the human eye; insects, thirsty for blood; microscopic amoeba.  They might look harmless but these are some of nature’s deadliest creatures.  They can hijack our bodies, disable our immune systems.  They are parasites, but to those infected they are the Monsters Inside Me.  

HOST VO

Parasites live in or off other living organisms called hosts and many of the most successful parasites find ways to bypass the immune system so that the host doesn’t even know they’re there.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

For some parasites, hiding a way inside a host is a brilliant strategy.  They can get all the nourishment they need without being detected by the body’s immune system.  It’s only when these stowaways come out of hiding that the body recognizes them and that can mean serious trouble for the host.

HOST VO

As one contractor in California…

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…is about to find out.  

MUSIC IN

2007; 53-year-old Kurt Pearson is enjoying his job working as a carpenter in Santa Barbara, California.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I’ve been a carpenter for many, many years.  I specialize in door and window installation and replacement.  I enjoy working with my hands and I really love what I do. 

HOST VO

Apart from the occasional bout of asthma, Kurt is in good health and spends his free time indulging in his favorite passion, food.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

And I think variety is the spice of life, whether it be Indian dishes or Japanese food or Italian; it’s always a little bit of an adventure.

HOST VO

But Kurt’s appetite for adventure is about to come to an abrupt end.  

HOST VO

One Sunday in January Kurt’s doing some yard work at home.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I had gone down to clean up some of the debris and dirt and soil from the gutters along the sidewalk.

HOST VO

As Kurt heads back to his truck he’s hit with a strange sensation.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I found that I could not get a breath of air, maybe just a mouthful at a time.  I would have to put my hands on my knees to catch my breath and it took two or three minutes to actually get up enough energy to get up the driveway.

HOST VO

Shocked by this sudden shortness of breath, Kurt decides to call for help.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I had to call my girlfriend from the driveway to ask her to come out of the house and help me bring the tools back up because I was so fatigued that I found myself incapable of even bringing the tools back up to the top of the yard.

HOST VO

Kurt decides to call it a day and heads back inside to get some rest.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I thought in the back of my mind that’s rather unusual to not be able to bring my own tools back up a driveway.  I wrote that incident off as being overworked from the week before, but never did it cross my mind that I had something more serious going on at that time.

HOST VO

Kurt doesn’t think anything more of it until a few weeks later.

HOST VO

He’s watching T-V when he experiences a new and terrifying sensation.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

All of a sudden I tried to take a breath in and I could not breathe at all.  It literally felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and someone had put a pillow over my face.  The loss of breath was so immediate, it sent me into a, an absolute panic.

HOST VO

Kurt rushes to the nearest clinic.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I felt shear panic wondering what could possibly be wrong with me not being able to take a breath in.

HOST VO

The doctor examines him and says he’s suffering from an acute asthma attack and prescribes an inhaler.  For Kurt this is nothing new.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I would always be prescribed inhalers to open the airways and help relieve some of the breathing pressure and the constriction that I was experiencing during these episodes.

HOST VO

A few months later Kurt is in Palm Desert, California visiting his parents for Christmas, but when he goes to bring in some presents from his truck he has another frightening episode.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I had to stop every 20 feet or so to catch my breath.  I found it almost impossible to get back and forth from my truck, bringing some of my presents back in.

HOST VO

Once inside it only takes a few seconds for his Mom, Pauline, to notice something is wrong.

PAULINE PEARSON VO/OC

Kurt was using an inhaler an awful lot of the time.  He could hardly breathe.  I just thought well maybe perhaps it’s, you know, bronchitis or a slight case of pneumonia or something.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

Mothers’ understand intuitively I believe when a child is sick and she insists that I see a doctor when I got back home.

HOST VO

That evening Kurt drives to the urgent care clinic.  The doctor on duty asks him about his symptoms and does a quick examination.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I’ve explained some of the episodes and conditions that I’ve been feeling over a period of almost a year.  The doctor thumps my chest, listens and at that point decides that he should take an x-ray of my lungs.

HOST VO

A few minutes later Kurt gets the shock of his life.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

The doctor comes back rather graven faced and suggests that my lung is completely occluded, which means it is completely full of fluid.

HOST VO

Fluid in the lungs can indicate a number of dangerous conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, or congestive heart failure.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

He said whatever is going on with you has been going on for some time and whatever it is, it needs to be taken care of immediately.

HOST VO

Kurt is put under the care of Dr. Robert Wright, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist in Santa Barbara.  When he sees Kurt’s chart Dr. Wright knows that he needs to act fast.

DR. ROBERT WRIGHT VO/OC

The total amount of fluid in a person’s chest generally is around seven to ten milliliters.  I could tell from his x-rays that he had liters of fluid in his chest.

HOST VO

If Kurt’s lungs completely fill with fluid they could collapse and Kurt could die.  Dr. Wright immediately orders an ultrasound of Kurt’s lungs.  Then he performs a thoracentesis to drain the excess fluid from his chest.  But when Dr. Wright begins the procedure he’s shocked.  Usually the fluid is a mild yellow color, but right away Kurt’s looks different.

DR. ROBERT WRIGHT VO/OC

I know that he has something unusual from the get go because the fluid was like chocolate milk.  I knew that there was gonna be a limited number of things that would cause fluid like that.

HOST VO

But that’s not all.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

It’s pretty tough to see that much fluid come out of you and not wonder what on earth has caused that sort of fluid buildup in your lungs.

HOST VO

For Dr. Wright the large amount of discolored fluid means only one thing.

DR. ROBERT WRIGHT VO/OC

I’m thinking my gosh, he’s probably got cancer.

HOST VO

Doctors have drained several liters of thick brown fluid from Kurt Pearson’s lungs.  Pulmonologist Dr. Robert Wright tells Kurt that he thinks the cause is cancer.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

That not only worried but terrified me.  I really truly worried about what was going on with me.

KURT PEARSON VO

As soon as I found out I did call my mother and father.  They worried incessantly.

PAULINE PEARSON VO/OC

Kurt had told us that the doctor told him that it could be cancer and we thought oh dear I, this, oh, one of the worst things that can happen.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I was concerned for my parents and I did think that would be a horrible thing to witness the death of their child.  I hoped that I did not pass on before them.

HOST VO

But before Dr. Wright can be 100 percent certain that Kurt does have cancer, he must send a sample of the lung fluid for testing.  He contacts his colleague, Dr. David Fisk, to consult on the case.  When Dr. Fisk takes a look at Kurt’s lung fluid under a microscope, what he sees is astounding.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

The initial thing that struck me was this slide and this patient’s chest cavity are full of eggs.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen eggs in somebody’s lung fluid before.  When we look at the slide and see eggs we know that cancer is off the table.  On the other side of the coin, eggs tell me that there’s a live active parasite inside the chest, which implied an unusual and very severe disease that this patient was suffering from.

HOST VO

Based on the size and shape of the eggs, Dr. Fisk thinks he knows what’s going on.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

We concluded that these eggs represented an infection from the parasite called paragonimus westermani.  

HOST VO

He calls Kurt with the news.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

Dr. Fisk came right out and said we believe you’ve ingested a parasite.  The thought of a parasite crawling through my body, eating its way through was a little disconcerting.  

HOST VO

Paragonimus westermani, also known as Japanese lung fluke, is a parasitic worm that can cause a deadly infection.  Once inside the host’s lungs, it burrows into the lung tissue and begins laying eggs.  The presence of the parasite triggers an immune response that causes severe coughing.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

If the fluke is inside a lung the body’s immune system will move into attack, causing a buildup of fluid which ultimately can collapse the lung and kill the host.

HOST VO

With a diagnosis in hand, the doctors immediately prescribe Kurt a powerful anti-acidic drug called praziquanel.  Then they turn their attention to a pressing question, how could Kurt have contracted the parasite.  The doctors look to the parasite’s life cycle for a clue.

HOST VO

The lung fluke begins its life cycle as a free living egg in the water.  There the parasite invades a snail.  The eggs hatch in the snail’s gut, mature and migrate back into the water.  Then the parasite takes a new host, a freshwater crab.  If a human eats a raw crab contaminated with the parasite then they can become infected.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

It’s the ability to hijack the food chain while remaining totally undetected that makes the lung fluke the ultimate stowaway.

HOST VO

It is estimated that 80 percent of freshwater crabs in Asia carry the Japanese lung fluke, but lung flukes are not endemic in the United States.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

I told him that this certain type of infection, this certain type of parasite, is something that you probably only see in Asia.

HOST VO

Dr. Fisk asks Kurt whether he has been to Asia, but he hasn’t.  So could this deadly parasite be on the loose in the United States?

HOST VO

Infectious disease specialist, Dr. David Fisk, has just found the deadly parasite, the Japanese lung fluke, living inside Kurt Pearson’s lungs.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

Dr. Fisk came right out and said we believe you’ve ingested a parasite.

HOST VO

Dr. Fisk is now left with a pressing question.  The parasite is usually only found in Asia, but Kurt has never been to Asia; so how did he get it?  

HOST VO

Since the parasite usually hides inside raw shellfish, Dr. Fisk turns his attention to what Kurt’s been eating.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

We needed to spend time reviewing what he’d done and what he’d eaten over the last few years.

HOST VO

Kurt recalls a visit to a fancy sushi restaurant several months earlier.  It was there that something caught his eye.

KURT PEARSON OC/VO

On top of the sushi bar was a bowl of crabs.

HOST VO

The chef recognized Kurt as a regular patron and asked if he wanted to try some of the live crabs on display.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

He knew that I liked to eat some of the more challenging Japanese dishes that they had to offer and said that he would make a special red dipping sauce for the crabs, which were alive.

HOST VO

Always ready for something new, Kurt agreed to eat the crabs raw.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

I thought it would, was best to crunch them quickly.  I ate them fairly fast.  It was, it was not the type of food that you really savor.  It was chew it, swallow it, be done with it.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

I’m thinking that that’s the missing piece.  This puzzle in my mind is now complete.

HOST VO

The crabs that Kurt ate were imported from Asia and probably contained the parasite.  This is how doctors think he got infected.

HOST VO

Kurt continues to take the anti-parasitic medication and finally after weeks of treatment Kurt is parasite free.  Today Kurt’s life has returned to normal except for one thing.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

If I ever see live crab you can bet your bippy I’m never gonna order it again.  Cooked crab I have no problem with.  Raw crab never will find its way into my system again.

HOST VO

It’s estimated that 22 million people worldwide are infected with paragonimus westermani, though cases in the United States are extremely rare.  In order to prevent infection all shellfish should be thoroughly cooked to 145 degrees Fahrenheit to kill any parasites lurking inside.  The lung fluke has a simple strategy.  It stows away inside an intermediate host like a crab and waits to be eaten by its ultimate target, a human.  Paragonimus westermani isn’t the only deadly parasite to stow away in an intermediate host,

HOST VO

…as one adventure seeking woman is about to discover.  July, 1996; Magalia, California.  Brid Power works for a bicycle parts manufacturer and in her free time loves interacting with nature.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I just love living in northern California.  You just have such easy access to the outdoors.  I love being physically active.  All my concerns or worries just dissipate and it’s kind of a rush really being out there.

HOST VO

One day in September, Brid is out riding through the forest near her home.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I ride about 40 to 50 miles in surrounding areas.  Toward the end of the bike ride I’m feeling a little uncomfortable and that was unusual.  I normally wear bike shorts and I, you know, I always know there’s a certain amount of discomfort on a bike but you just get used to it.  This was just something that I…

MUSIC OUT

…never felt before.

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

Brid assumes she’s developed a heat rash around her groin.  She cuts her bike ride short and heads home.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I’m not at all worried about it.  I was thinking the riding the bike was aggravating it so I thought I probably should cut back on this so that it will heal.

HOST VO

But a few days later when Brid is getting ready for work she notices that the rash is still there and that it doesn’t look like a typical heat rash.

BRID POWER VO/OC

Maybe I’m allergic to something like lotion or detergent and that’s what’s prompted this rash.  I was just trying to figure out what was wrong with me really.

HOST VO

At the end of the week Brid goes to the local clinic to get the rash checked out.  Right away the doctor offers a simple explanation.

BRID POWER VO/OC

They just looked at it and decided that it was poison oak.

HOST VO

Poison oak is a plant that’s leaves can cause a severe allergic reaction.  The most common symptoms are itching, a red rash and oozing blisters.

BRID POWER OC/VO

It’s a bit of a drag if it’s poison oak but it’s not the end of the world.  I wasn’t worried.  I was probably relieved.

HOST VO

The clinic’s doctors are also unconcerned and offer a quick solution.

BRID POWER VO/OC

They told me to get anti itch medication and I could just buy it over the counter, so I went and I bought that.

HOST VO

For the next few days Brid applies the medication, but to no avail.

BRID POWER VO/OC

This just doesn’t seem to be responding at all to the treatment.  It was unusual.

HOST VO

Two weeks after she is diagnosed with poison oak, Brid is home when she notices that the rash has spread across her upper thigh.

BRID POWER VO

I’ve never had any kind of a skin problem ever.  I now knew there was something wrong and it was not part of the norm for me.

HOST VO

What Brid doesn’t know is that she has already entered the dark world of parasitic infection.

HOST VO

And now Inside The Monster.  What percentage of Asian freshwater crabs are infected with the Paragonimus parasite: A) five percent, B) 30 percent, C) 50 percent, D) 80 percent?

HOST VO

What percentage of freshwater crabs in Asia are infected with the Paragonimus parasite?  The answer is D) 80 percent?

HOST VO

Bike rider Brid Power has been suffering from an angry red rash on her groin and upper thigh, and the rash is beginning to spread.  She has tried using over the counter drugs but nothing is helping.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I’ve never had any kind of skin problem ever.  I now knew there was something wrong and it was not part of the norm for me.

HOST VO

Brid shows the rash to her roommate, Lea McCleary, a trained nurse practitioner who is instantly suspicious.

LEA MCCLEARY VO/OC

She said it was itching and, and irritating.  It just had a peculiar shape to it.  It was fiery and itchy and poison oak is usually more moist and blistery.  The rash was absolutely unlike anything I’d ever seen.

HOST VO

Alarmed, Lea suggests Brid consult a dermatologist.

HOST VO

A few days later Brid visits Dr. Linda Davis-Reed in Chico, California.  Right away Dr. Davis-Reed dismisses the poison oak diagnosis.

DR. LINDA DAVIS-REED VO/OC

Everybody knows what poison oak looks like or at, or at least I think they do.  Something was just not quite right about it.  We needed to get a piece of the skin to look at under the microscope to see what was going on.

HOST VO

Dr. Davis-Reed removes a sample of the rash to be sent for a biopsy.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I thought I would go to, she’d write me a prescription and I’d be on my merry way.  This is more involved…

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…than I was expecting.

MUSIC IN

HOST VO

But when the results come back, Brid is in for a shock.

DR. LINDA DAVIS-REED VO/OC

I got this report and I saw that this was something that I had never dealt with. What we need.  This is an extraordinary biopsy and they said that it showed a, a worm with a cuticle around it.

HOST VO

Brid has been infected with a mysterious parasitic worm.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I was petrified.  I didn’t want something in my body that I had no control over and then wondering where is it?

HOST VO

To find out what kind of worm it is Dr. Davis-Reed needs to conduct another test, this time on Brid’s urine.

BRID POWER VO/OC

They asked me to do a 24-hour urine collection.  I would have done whatever they told me at that stage.

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HOST VO

A few days later the results are back.

MUSIC IN

DR. LINDA DAVIS-REED VO/OC

The report that we got back showed that it was schistosomiasis. 

HOST VO

Schistosomiasis is a life threatening disease that’s caused by the parasitic worm schistosoma haematobium.  The schistosoma haematobium parasite infests the blood vessels around the host’s bladder.  There it reproduces rapidly, laying millions of microscopic eggs which are excreted in the urine.  In rare cases when the eggs pass out of the body they come into contact with the skin.  If this happens they can become lodged in the skin creating a fiery red rash.  But schistosoma haematobium can be much more dangerous than just a rash.  As the schistosomes lay eggs inside the bladder the immune response grows, creating inflammation and damaging the surrounding tissue.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

Eventually this can result in a massive buildup of dead tissue and that buildup is correlated with the onset of cancer, and that can cause a big problem for the host.

HOST VO

Dr. Davis-Reed breaks the news to Brid.

DR. LINDA DAVIS-REED VO/OC

It’s a distressing thing to hear that you have something growing inside you that shouldn’t be there.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I was kind of scared about it and I had never encountered anything like it before.

HOST VO

The parasite that is living inside Brid Power could trigger the most feared disease of all, cancer.

HOST VO

Doctors have just told Brid Power that the parasite schistosoma haematobium has invaded her bladder, but what’s worse is that the parasite might have given her cancer.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I was worried that you could develop cancers that had been in your body for a long time.

HOST VO

Brid’s doctor prescribes the powerful anti worm medication praziquantel…

HOST VO

…and sends Brid for a scan.  If cancer is present in Brid’s bladder this test will find it.  The results won’t come back for several days.

HOST VO

While they’re waiting, Brid’s doctors try to figure out how she became infected.  Schistosomes begin life as eggs in fresh water.  The larvae swim about in search of the parasite’s intermediate host, a snail.  They invade the snail’s soft fleshy tissue where they mature and multiply.  When the snail dies the schistosomes return to the water before burrowing through the skin of their primary host, a human.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

The World Health Organization estimates that 200 million people worldwide have schistosomiasis and the overwhelming majority of those people live in Africa. 

HOST VO

Dr. Davis-Reed asks Brid where she has traveled in the past few years.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I had traveled to Africa in Zimbabwe and Mozambique and Malawi like three years earlier.

HOST VO

And there’s one particular part of Brid’s trip that catches the doctor’s attention.

BRID POWER VO/OC

When I was traveling in Africa I spent a few days at Lake Malawi and I was swimming.

HOST VO

Lake Malawi is known to be a prime breeding ground for schistosoma haematobium.  It’s here that Brid was probably exposed to the parasite.

DR. LINDA DAVIS-REED VO/OC

Once I found out that she had been in Africa, then I thought that that’s how she acquired it, just getting her feet in the water.

HOST VO

The schistosoma haematobium parasite stowed away in her body and only three years later did it make its presence felt.

DAN RISKIN OC/VO

Inside of a human host schistosoma haematobium will live an average of five to eight years and over the course of her lifetime a female will produce tens of thousands of eggs.  That strategy makes this parasite the perfect stowaway.

HOST VO

A few days later the results of Brid’s cystoscopy are back.  It’s good news; she is cancer free and the medication seems to be working too.  The itchy red rash on her groin and thigh has begun to fade.

BRID POWER VO/OC

Once I was treated for the schistosomiasis the rash resolved itself in, you know, a short period of time.

HOST VO

Six months after being diagnosed Brid goes for another test which confirms that the parasites are gone from her system.

BRID POWER VO/OC

I’m really good.  I’m very healthy.  I don’t have any, any medical concerns and, and I feel really grateful for that.

HOST VO

Schistosomiasis is virtually unheard of in the United States, but travelers to regions where schistosomiasis is common such as Africa and parts of Asia should avoid swimming in freshwater rivers, streams or lakes.  For Brid Power this microscopic monster wreaked havoc by targeting her bladder.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Schistosomes that are specialized to attack one specific place in the body, destroying it and the host in the process.

HOST VO

But other deadly parasites are not specialized at all and when they come out of hiding the results can be horrifying as one army veteran is about to find out.  2004, Teaneck, New Jersey.  Newly retired Army Specialist Hartwill Cornelius is settling into civilian life as a school guidance counselor.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I enjoy my job.  I enjoy working with the youth, prepare them for high school, deal with the emotional problems; that’s basically what I try to do. 

HOST VO

When he’s…

HOST VO

…not working, Hartwill spends most of his time staying fit with his wife of 30 years, Pat.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

We both jog.  We do power walks.  We stay pretty active.  We, we’re basically always together.

HOST VO

Little does Hartwill know, he’s about to go to war with a parasitic invader.

HOST VO

One evening in October Pat and Hartwill are sitting down to a home cooked meal.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

My wife is an excellent cook.  I was looking forward to all the foods that I had missed while I was away.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

I try to fix meals that Hartwill loves to eat: black eyed peas, rice, collard greens, you know, the works.

HOST VO

Hartwill finishes dinner but 20 minutes later he notices that he doesn’t feel full.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I was hungry again.  I went back in the kitchen and I just ate.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

Normally you wouldn’t be hungry after eating that kind of meal.  It, it’s a heavy meal.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I never used to eat like that but, you know, I didn’t pay attention to it.  I thought I was just hungry.

HOST VO

But over the next few days Hartwill’s appetite becomes insatiable.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I ate morning, lunch, a snack between lunch and dinner.

PAT CORNELIUS VO

He was always looking for something to eat.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO

After dinner I would grab something else and probably grab something else after that.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

Cookies, an apple or an orange.  This could go on all night long until he actually went to sleep.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO

I was hungry all the time.

HOST VO

Then one morning when he’s getting ready for work Hartwill makes an unexpected discovery.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I put on my favorite pants and I noticed that my belt was a little loose.  I went to the next loop.

HOST VO

In spite of his constant eating, Hartwill is actually losing weight and when he asks Pat to take a look she’s perplexed.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

I noticed body fat diminishing and it just didn’t look right.  I said to him, “You’re always eating.”  I, I couldn’t figure it out at that time.

HOST VO

But Hartwill isn’t worried.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I was glad to see that the weight was going down.  I thought for sure that it was probably was exercise; you know, a normal weight loss.

HOST VO

A few weeks later Hartwill and Pat are finishing up dinner when Hartwill is hit with an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I felt a pinching along my left side of my stomach.  It was very uncomfortable.  The sensation lasted maybe two or three seconds and then it would come back.  It felt as if I had needles and they, some needles were pinching me.  I’ve had stomach aches but a stomach ache is much different than what I was feeling.

HOST VO

Hartwill is concerned that his diet is to blame.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

And even though I was eating a lot, sometimes you get a lot and not eat right.  I didn’t feel I was myself.

HOST VO

Concerned that his indulgent eating habits are making him sick, 

HOST VO

…Hartwill decides to start a body cleanse.  Body cleansing is an alternate form of dieting designed to rid the body of harmful toxins.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

You cleanse for about three months.  While you’re cleansing you cannot eat certain foods; you can not eat meat, no milk products.  You have to stay with your fruits, vegetables, nuts.  It acts as a broom that pushes out all the impurities out of your system.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

When you’re on a colon cleansing, your bowels move frequently so if there’s anything in there it’s going to come out.

HOST VO

Hartwill is about to rid his body of more than just toxins.

HOST VO

One month into the cleanse he is sound asleep when he is jolted awake by an excruciating pain in his stomach.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I’m feeling gassy.  I’m used to feeling gassy but this gas was rumbling just a little more.  Very weird because it was something I never felt before.  I thought at, at one point I had soiled myself.

HOST VO

But when he’s halfway to the bathroom he has a very disturbing sensation.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I feel something slapping against my thigh and I stopped, I reached underneath and felt something hanging.  It was something I never felt before.  As I’m pulling on it I pushed my pajamas down further.  I reached between my leg; I pulled on something and it came out.  It was moving.  I cut on the lights and I have this worm in my hand.  I felt very uncomfortable knowing that there was a worm that long inside of me.  I yelled to Pat, “Come here.  Hurry up, come here.”  

HOST VO

When Pat gets to the doorway she can’t believe what she is seeing.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

He was holding it in his hand and it was moving.  Wasn’t pleasant to look at.  Not in my wildest dream would I have thought that this was the problem.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS OC

The first thing that come to my mind is how many more do I have in me?

HOST VO

Retired Army veteran Hartwill Cornelius has just pulled a nine inch long live worm out of his rectum.  He and his wife Pat are horrified.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO

I felt very uncomfortable knowing that there was a worm that long inside of me.  The first thing that come to my mind is how many more do I have in me?

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

I did say that if you have this one, there has to be more.

HOST VO

Hartwill rushes to the hospital with the live worm in hand.  The worm is sent straight to the lab while Hartwill is examined by infectious disease specialist, Dr. Daniel Caplivski.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

I meet Hartwill for the first time and he tells me the story of how he had passed this worm in his stool.  The fact that he’s passed one worm may mean that he has hundreds more inside his G-I tract.

HOST VO

Anxious to identify the worm, Dr. Caplivski heads to the lab.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

When someone passes a worm in the stool, one of the considerations might be tapeworms.  Tapeworms are generally flat, segmented worms that can reach several feet in length.

HOST VO

But Hartwill’s worm is not segmented, nor is it flat.  For the doctors this can mean only one thing.  Dr. Caplivski calls Hartwill back into his office.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

I tell him I think I know what you have.  He has a parasite called ascaris lumbricoides.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Ascaris lumbricoides is a parasitic roundworm that infects the human intestine.  Ascaris is the largest roundworm a human can get.  They can grow up to 16 inches long.

HOST VO

Inside the small intestine the ascaris parasite gorges itself on predigested food, stealing nutrients from its host.  The worms reach maturity, breed and continue feeding inside the host’s intestines.  But the ascaris worm is not a benign invader; it can cause fatal complications.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

If multiple ascaris worms migrate to the wrong part of the body like the colon, they can cause a blockage that turns deadly for the host.

HOST VO

So the question remains, has this voracious monster taken over Hartwill’s entire digestive system?

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

Most patients who have ascariasis have many, many worms.  I explained that because he’s passed a single worm of ascaris he could have other worms still present in his G-I tract.

HOST VO

If there are other worms inside Hartwill’s large intestine, they could cause a backup of waste and Hartwill could die.  Dr. Caplivski floods Hartwill’s system with antiparasitic drugs.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO

I was very…

HARTWILL CORNELIUS OC

…disturbed at the fact that I did have more worms in my stomach.

HOST VO

While the treatment takes effect, Hartwill and his doctors turn their attention to where Hartwill might have contracted the hungry parasite.  Ascaris lumbricoides parasites begin as free living eggs in the soil.  If the eggs are ingested by a human host they travel to the intestines where they feed, mate and lay eggs.  When the parasitic eggs are passed out in the host’s feces, the life cycle is complete.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

It is estimated that this parasite infects over a quarter of the world’s population right now.  In some parts of Africa almost 95 percent of people are infected.

HOST VO

In the U.S. ascaris infection is rare, but one of the ways the parasite can enter the country is as a stowaway inside a living host.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO

Ascaris infection is…

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI OC/VO

…present here in the United States but in very low levels and low numbers.  It’s much more common in folks who have traveled from other countries.

HOST VO

Dr. Caplivski asks Hartwill about his travel history.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO

We learned that Hartwill has been serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and has had a lot of close contact with the local populous.

HOST VO

While on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan Hartwill often shared food with local civilians.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

There would be a long carpet full of food and we all sat around on the ground and we ate their food with them.  You would have to eat their food.  If you didn’t eat the food it would, they would always become suspicious of you.  It was a form of being courteous and respectful to their, to the culture.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

I asked Hartwill specifically the kind of foods he was eating.  He tells me he’s been eating fruits, uncooked vegetables, all the kinds of foods that might put him at risk for different parasitic infections.

HOST VO

It’s likely that while on active service Hartwill ingested food that was contaminated with microscopic ascaris eggs.

HOST VO

Hartwill returns home and continues to take the antiparasitic medication.  

HOST VO

A few days later he returns to Dr. Caplivski’s office where his stool sample is tested for parasites and the news is good.

DR. DANIEL CAPLIVSKI VO/OC

In the stool sample we’re not able to find any more of the eggs of ascaris or other worms.  We’re hopeful that as he takes these medicines he’ll feel much better.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

I was very relieved that he told me that I didn’t have any more worms in me.  The medication had removed all what was probably there so, you know, I pretty much got a clean bill of health from that point on.

HOST VO

Today Hartwill is parasite free and back to his old self.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

Considering that you have so many guys who go to Iraq and they come back with so many injuries that, you know, they’re trying to recover from, for me to just come back with a bug, I can handle the bug and deal with it as it is now.  It’s all in the past and I can, you know,

HARTWILL CORNELIUS OC

…move on from there.

HOST VO

Ascaris worms are more common in areas where sanitation is poor.  In these regions travelers should avoid eating uncooked fruits and vegetables or foods washed in unpurified water.

DAN RISKIN VO/OC

Avoiding detection and staying clear of the host’s immune system are the keys to success for some parasites.  It’s only when they come out of hiding that the real trouble begins, and when that happens there’s no telling what damage these stowaways can do.

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HOST VO

For more disgusting parasites and tips on how to avoid them, visit our website: animal planet.com/Monsters Inside Me.

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HOST VO

But Kurt decides to wait it out and see if whatever it is finally runs its course.

HOST VO

Then on New Year’s Eve he goes to his client’s house for a quick repair.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

It’s late afternoon.  I’m installing a lock set on the front door of a customer.  He’s sitting in the living room reading the paper and he stops and he says, “Excuse me Kurt; forgive me for saying this but I can hear you breathing from across the room.  Are you sure you’re okay?  You’re putting a screw in a lock set and you are breathing like you just run a, a marathon.”  He says, “That’s not normal;” and he says, “you should think about seeing a doctor.”   I just thought well, okay, that’s the last straw.  Somebody else has made a comment besides my mother.  I’m just gonna go and see the doctor.

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DR. ROBERT WRIGHT VO/OC

You probe with a small needle down deep into the chest wall and once you get a little bit of fluid, then I take a larger needle and penetrate the chest wall and then you insert the little catheter right through the needle into the chest compartment and then you drain the fluid by vacuum suctioning.

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DR. DAVID FISK OC/VO

The first way that praziquantel works is by paralyzing the worm.  It actually causes the worm to have muscle spasms to the degree where it can no longer attach to a person’s body.  The second way that praziquantel works is that it’s felt to cause small holes in the wall of the parasite so that the structure of the parasite becomes disturbed, and when that structure becomes disturbed it triggers the body’s immune system to come and kill the parasite.

HOST VO

They also warned Kurt to expect side effects.  The majority of the side effects occur when the host’s immune system reacts to the dying and disintegrating worms.  The more parasites there are, the more severe the side effects.

DR. DAVID FISK VO/OC

When someone takes praziquantel they can get headaches, they can get fevers, they can get rashes.  The most common thing though is that they will get abdominal discomfort, abdominal pain and cramping.

KURT PEARSON OC/VO

If you can imagine the worst seasickness you’ve ever felt or the worst hangover times a factor of about three or four, that is how that medication felt.  Tunnel vision, sweats, nausea; but it was many, many times worse than the worst illness I’ve ever experienced, let alone the, the symptoms that I had experienced of, with the crabs.  It was just, it was a nightmare.

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HOST VO

Dr. Wright shows Kurt a series of pictures and asks Kurt to identify the exact crab that he ate.

KURT PEARSON VO/OC

As soon as I saw the image I said absolutely that’s, that’s the crab I ate at the sushi bar; there’s no mistaking that.  I will never forget the image of those crabs.

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BRID POWER VO/OC

I probably was using; I used, I keep, one of those like non hypo allergic oatmeal based soap things.  I’ve always used mild items.

HOST VO

Brid immediately switches her laundry detergent but it does no good.

BRID POWER VO

It was still there.  It hasn’t gone away.

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BRID POWER VO/OC

You get this giant big plastic container that, you know, would be like a heavy duty milk carton and I think I had a couple of them and you collect your urine.

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HOST VO

The next day Brid turns in the samples and is left wondering her fate.  When she returns home her roommate Lea can sense Brid’s concern.

LEA MCCLEARY VO/OC

Brid’s just a, a stoical person and upbeat but she was definitely anxious and nervous and I, I know that she wasn’t sleeping well.  Not quite her old cheerful self during that time.

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HARTWILL CORNELIUS OC/VO

It looked like a normal worm.  When I looked at it it was stretched out and it was fat and very slimy.

PAT CORNELIUS VO/OC

I was looking for a container or something to put the worm in.

HARTWILL CORNELIUS VO/OC

She went and got a jar, put it in the jar and we tightened it up.  It was moving.  It was moving, trying to reach up.  We started looking at it through the glass jar and it was moving around, and as I was watching it it was trying to lift his head or his tail up.  I do feel shocked.  I felt the shock initially, that was initial shock.

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HARTWILL CORNELIUS OC

I told the doctor exactly what happened.  He told me he will examine it.  He looked at it and he said someone would be in contact with me soon.