Stomach-churning X-ray pictures show man left bursting with tapeworm eggs after he made a grave kitchen mistake

Sam Ghali, an Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida, revealed shocking snaps showing a patient's experience with a tapeworm infection

A man was left bursting with tapeworm eggs after making a grave kitchen mistake that allowed the parasites to take root.

Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida, Dr. Sam Ghali, shared shocking snaps of a patient's experience with a tapeworm infection in an educational post on X, formerly Twitter, showcasing what he said was one of the "most insane X-rays I’ve ever seen."

In a video with running commentary, Dr. Ghali showed a man's lower torso mottled with small white dots, which he explained were dozens of calcified tapeworm eggs.

The parasites had made their way into his body and deposited their sickening payload in soft tissue around the man's pelvis after he made a severe misstep while cooking.

The condition, known as "cysticercosis," is caused by the "larval cyst of taenia solium, also known as the pork tapeworm," Dr. Ghali said in the video.

The cysts can travel "throughout the entire body," he said, adding they burrow into muscular and soft tissue after people eat undercooked or raw pig.

"These cysts can travel anywhere throughout the entire body, heavily to the muscular and soft tissue of the hips and the legs," Dr. Ghali said. "This condition comes from when the patient eats undercooked, or raw, pig. If just in the pelvis, they don’t pose a life-threatening problem."

However, he warned that the parasites can cause "very serious issues" if they travel to the brain and lodge there.

"That can cause neurological symptoms like headaches, confusion, seizures and even death," Dr. Ghali said. "The moral of the story is never eat raw pork."

The doctor's reveal left people following his commentary online unsettled, with commenters expressing everything from disgust to gratitude for his succinct explanation.

"I’ve literally have boneless pork chops thawing in the sink right now," one social media user said. "Not showing this to the wife."

Another added: "I was looking and thinking WTH….and Thank Goodness you said “pork”! I was so worried you were about to say it was caused by Raw cookie dough!"

"Good thing I don’t eat pork….phew pays to be a picky eater," one relieved user said.

Tape worms have been known to penetrate deep into people's bodies after they consume meat containing their eggs, with one distressing case seeing a man discover one worm in his brain after visiting doctors.

The gruesome 2014 discovery in the unnamed 50-year-old's head was made by doctors who concluded the parasite had lived there for up to 10 years before it was detected.

He had visited doctors in 2008 after suffering headaches, seizures, memory and sense of smell loss, and had the "10 cm ribbon-shaped larval worm" removed in 2012, before going on to make a full recovery, the Genome Biology journal revealed.