Sushi lover pulled a 5-foot tapeworm from intestine, Fresno doc says

A Fresno man with a daily sushi habit had a 5 1/2-foot tapeworm lodged in his intestines, says a doctor at Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center. A Fresno man with a daily sushi habit had a 5 1/2-foot tapeworm lodged in his intestines, says a doctor at Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center. Photo: Courtesy Dr. Kenny Banh/This Won't Hurt A Bit Podcast Photo: Courtesy Dr. Kenny Banh/This Won't Hurt A Bit Podcast Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Sushi lover pulled a 5-foot tapeworm from intestine, Fresno doc says 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

A Fresno man with a daily sushi habit had a 5.5-foot tapeworm lodged in his intestines. He pulled it out himself, wrapped it around a cardboard toilet paper tube and carried the creature into Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center.

Kenny Banh was the lucky doc on shift at the time. He recounted his experience on a recent episode of the podcast "This Won't Hurt A Bit."

Banh said the patient complained of "bloody diarrhea" and expressed a desire to get treated for tapeworms.

"I get asked this a lot," the doctor said. "Truthfully, a lot of times I don't think they have it."

This man had it, which he proved to Banh by opening a plastic grocery bag and pulling out the worm-wrapped toilet paper tube.

Banh then asked some questions, starting with: "That came out of your bottom?"

"Yes."

According to the doctor's retelling, the patient was using the restroom when he noticed what looked like a piece of intestine hanging out of his body.

"He grabs it, and he pulls on it, and it keeps coming out," Banh recounted. He then picks the thing up, "looks at it, and what does it do? It starts moving." (Note: At this point in the podcast, the hosts audibly gasp.)

That's when the man realized he had a tapeworm stuck in his insides. He headed to the emergency room shortly thereafter, where Banh treated him with an anthelmintic, a single-treatment deworming medication used on humans and dogs alike.

Banh also took it upon himself to measure the specimen on the floor of the hospital. It stretched a whopping 5 feet, 6 inches — "my height," noted the doctor.

Tapeworms can be contracted in a variety of ways, but Banh said his patient hadn't traveled out of the country or engaged in any out-of-the-ordinary behavior. The man also professed his love of sushi, specifically raw salmon sashimi, which he confessed to eating daily.

Fresno is located an ample 150 miles from coastline and is not exactly famed for its sushi. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last February that the rise in popularity of raw fish consumption has likely spurred a recent increase of tapeworm infections.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.