Live 5-inch worm removed from man’s eye

The doctors who treated this patient’s eye irritation must have been shocked at what they found was the cause: a 5-inch long, living parasitic worm.
If you are not too squeamish, here’s the video of the surgery:

When an elderly Indian patient came to Dr V. Seetharaman with persistent pain in his eye, what the surgeon found was reminiscent of a far-fetched alien movie plot: a live, 13 centimetre-long worm.
On examining the 75-year-old at Mumbai’s Fortis Hospital this week, the eye expert was shocked by the highly unusual sight of the writhing parasite and had to operate speedily to remove it before serious damage was caused.
“It was wriggling there under the conjunctiva,” Seetharaman told AFP, referring to the thin membrane lining the eye. “It was the first time in my career of 30 years that I had seen such a case.”
Retired patient P.K. Krishnamurthy had been suffering for more than two weeks with redness and irritation before the doctor pin-pointed the threadlike creature under a microscope on Wednesday.
“He was also confused and very much disturbed,” said Seetharaman.
The specialist removed the 13-centimetre (five-inch) worm by making a small opening in the conjunctiva — a 15-minute operation that was observed by the patient’s horrified wife, Saraswati.

This unusual case was mentioned in Dobbs’ Case Discussion General Medicine forum, and the likely type of parasitic infestation involved in this case was also discussed.