7cm live worm removed from 70-year-old man’s eye in Bharuch

SURAT: Jashu Patel, a 70-year-old man from a small village near Bharuch, had severe pain in the right eye for the past two months. Doctors too were perplexed as no medicine provided him any relief.
Ultimately, when they conducted a detailed microscopic investigation, they were shocked to find a live worm, that too a seven centimetre long, living in his eye.Operation, though risky, was the only solution but it was successfully done with the surgeons removing the worm.
The surgery was done in Narayan Hospital and Research Centre in Bharuch.
Dr Milan Panchal, senior ophthalmologist, told TOI: “This is an extremely rare case. The worm was present on the conjunctival surface (white skin portion in the eye). The age factor of the patient was considered and risk factors explained to him. After 30 minutes of operation, we were successful in removing the seven centimetre worm.”
Patel, who is unmarried, was staying in an ashram located in Mumbai’s suburban Virar town, where he worked in the kitchen, cutting vegetables, milking cows and doing daily chores.
Medical experts say worms somehow enter the bloodstream and grow inside the body. In Patel’s case, doctors suspect that it may have entered through a dog bite he suffered 12 years ago.
“There is a strong possibility that the worm may have entered his bloodstream and settled in the eye. It could be due to dog bite, working in the farm, milking cow etc,” said Dr Panchal .
Speaking to TOI, Patel said, “I live alone in the village and have no relatives. For last many years, I have been giving voluntary service in an ashram in Virar. For last couple of months, I was not feeling good due to pain in my right eye. When doctors told me that there was a worm in my eye, I was shocked,” said Jashu Patel.
Dr Priti Kapadia, head of the ophthalmology department of city-based New Civil Hospital, said, “It is a very significant case because it is very rare to find a worm in the conjunctival surface of the eye. The patient’s age makes it a rarer case and riskier to operate.”