You have jaundice, swelling, gallstones… Jan Korczak (27) from České Budějovice heard these diagnoses in the hospital last November. It took doctors three weeks to find out that his liver was affected by echinococcosis, which causes tapeworm.
Although the disease is diagnosed in a few patients every year, it can end in organ transplantation. Unfortutely, the disease has vague symptoms and a long incubation period of five to fifteen years. People can become infected, for example, by eating raw forest fruits contamited with fox feces. Honza Korczak will probably never know how he got to a serious illness that deprived him of seventy percent of his liver.
severe itching
At the same time, his illness began to manifest itself imperceptibly. “For no reason at all, the whole body began to itch, it was uncomfortable, and when it scratched, it was even worse. Sometimes I scratched myself until I bled. I have never had stomach pains or any other problems before.” martial arts coach Jan Korczak described for Blesk.cz. After that, the whites of his eyes turned yellow, he was very tired, he had a high temperature.
Last year the only
“The district doctor referred me to the hospital with suspicion of jaundice, where they did blood tests, which showed that it was not jaundice. Subsequently, they did an ultrasound, where the attending physician said that I had gallstones, ” Ya described, saying that they were supposed to be taken out the next day. When he was admitted to the hospital, the doctors conducted another examition, during which they found that his liver was seriously damaged.
“I was hospitalized and for three weeks they did not know what was happening to me. Every day a new doctor came to us with different diagnoses, including cancer. Until someone thought it might be echinococcosis, and this was later confirmed in parasitology.” the young man recalls, saying that he was apparently the only diseased fox tapeworm in the past year.
He lost 70 percent of his liver
As a treatment, a broad-spectrum antiparasitic agent with action against intestil and tissue helminths was used. The goal was to stop the spread of the disease. Honza then came under the care of Associate Professor Jiří Froneck (51), head of the IKEM Transplant Surgery Clinic.
Three types of treatment are possible, mely removal of part of the liver, partial transplantation, or complete transplantation. The surgery date was in February of this year and Yang lost 70% of his liver. “At the same time, it was not known in advance how everything would turn out, it was also possible that I could be in artificial sleep for several weeks or months and I would wait for a donor,” describes Honzo’s difficult moments.
Today he feels better, although his stomach still hurts after the operation, but all other problems are gone and the young man is slowly regaining his strength. The berries did not revolt him, but now he watches what he eats. “If they are washed or heat-treated in some way, I will be happy to receive them,” he smiles and praises the care he received at IKEA.
Source: Blesk