Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN's chief medical correspondent, gave a rather graphic account of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s battle. with a brain worm.
A Wednesday report from The New York Times revealed that in a 2012 divorce filing, Kennedy claimed a worm “got into my brain and ate part of it and then it died.” As a result, Kennedy said he experienced severe memory loss and mental fog.
Gupta, who has some experience removing parasitic worms from patients, told CNN's Brianna Keilar that it's not a common occurrence, but it “does happen.”
(Video: CNN)
The nightmare-inducing problem, the doctor said, can usually be traced back to undercooked pork.
“It's not that common, although it does happen,” Gupta said. “It usually starts from people who may have eaten undercooked pork, and small eggs or larvae can get into the food supply.”
“Ultimately, if these get into your bloodstream, they can travel throughout your body,” he continued. “And that happens, especially in places where these kinds of eating habits are more common.”
To better illustrate the infestation, Gupta brought an image of an infected human brain.
“Let me show you a picture of that, so you get a sense of what we're talking about here,” he said. “You imagine these little larvae get into areas of the body, in this case the brain, and they can grow a little bit.”
“Those are the purple spots you see there in the brain,” he explained. “Sometimes they won't cause any symptoms. People won't even know they have them. Sometimes people might get headaches. Sometimes people might develop seizures.”
“It's not actually associated with brain fog or memory problems, per se,” he added, “but they can be problematic.”
Often, as impossible as it is to imagine, no treatment is necessary.
“Many times there is nothing to be done,” says Dr. Gupta. “They are not causing symptoms.”
But it's not always like that.
“Sometimes there are drugs, parasite drugs, or sometimes you have to have an operation, like you mentioned,” he said, pulling out a plastic model of a brain.
“And you know, here's a brain model,” he said. “So you can imagine it's near the surface of the brain. If you had one of these cysts, you'd make a small bony opening in the skull and basically remove that cyst, which represents this parasite. And that's sometimes also necessary”.
“So it happens. It's rare,” Gupta concluded, adding that the image of a worm chomping on Kennedy's brain is somewhat misleading.
“I think you don't really describe it as having eaten the brain as much as living there in the brain and possibly causing these problems,” he said.
On X, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) thought it was all funny.
He quickly learned that he was thinking wrong.
In what one user called a “heartless” post, Collins wrote: “Either you die a Kennedy with a hole in your brain or you live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in your brain.”
“Heartless, rude, disgusting and poisonous to say that,” the user replied.
Heartless, rude, disgusting and poisonous to say that.
— Lisa Christine •. (@lisachristinect) May 8, 2024
“No,” former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis told Collins. “Just… no.”
“This is beyond the pale and I'm a conservative telling you that,” said another user. “A certain level of human decency should transcend politics. Do better.”
Former Congressman Joe Walsh echoed the sentiment.
“This is a super disgusting tweet. Please take this down,” Walsh urged Collins. “Please be better.”
No. Just….. no.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) May 8, 2024
This is beyond the pale and I'm a conservative telling you that.
A certain level of human decency should transcend politics. do it better
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) May 8, 2024
This is a super disgusting tweet. Please remove this. Please be better. https://t.co/ORbAVX4eCV
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) May 8, 2024
“You, sir,” said political commentator Charlie Sykes to Collins, “are truly sick.”
You, sir, are truly sick. https://t.co/Vf5F0hnWkI
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) May 8, 2024
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