A Florida teenager who was hospitalised with a bulging stomach has been found to have been given tapeworms by her mother to help her slim down for a beauty contest.
The mother has confessed to secretly giving her daughter pills containing the parasitic flatworms.
Her daughter was brought to a hospital where nurse Maricar Cabral-Osorio worked, in the belief that she was pregnant. But an ultrasound revealed no sign of a baby.
The mystery was only solved only after the patient used the toilet and started screaming.
"It was a toilet bowl full of tapeworms. It was so gross and she had pooped all these tapeworms," said Cabral-Osorio.
"There were a couple that were very long and wiggling around trying to get out of the toilet bowl."
When it became clear that the girl would be fine, Cabral-Osorio and her colleagues soon found out the cause.
"We were wondering how did she get those tapeworms, and then you saw the mom turn white. The mom was apologizing to the girl. It's like 'I'm so sorry. You know, I did it just to make you a little skinnier. You needed some help before we went on to the pageant,'" she explained.
