Story highlights Doctors in India removed a lengthy tapeworm from a 48-year-old man

Pork tapeworm infections are contracted by ingesting tapeworm eggs

(CNN) Doctors in India were stunned to remove a tapeworm measuring more than 6 feet through a patient's mouth, according to a report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Cyriac Phillips wrote in an email that the 48-year-old man underwent a colonoscopy in 2014 after complaints of "tolerable" abdominal pain that had gone on for two months and test results indicating low hemoglobin concentrations in his blood.

While performing the colonoscopy, Phillips discovered part of the worm.

"It was an undulating, moving piece of the worm, " he said, "This worm segment was confirmation that there was a tapeworm infestation in this patient."

After the initial discovery, doctors performed an endoscopy, a procedure using a camera inserted into the patient's stomach to view the intestines. During the procedure, Phillips and his team were able to see images of the lengthy parasite residing in the small intestine.

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