Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed doctors once discovered a worm that had died inside his brain.That’s according to a report published Wednesday by the New York Times. The Times reports Kennedy revealed the condition as part of a 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings.In that deposition reviewed by the paper, the now-presidential candidate said he began experiencing severe memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010. After undergoing tests and scans, doctors originally believed Kennedy was suffering from a brain tumor, before a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital called him with a different opinion. That doctor said he believed the issue “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in the deposition.The Times reports Kennedy did not know the type of parasite, nor how he may have contracted it, but suspected he may have picked it up in South Asia.The paper spoke to experts, who did not treat Kennedy, but generally theorized the worm may have been a pork tapeworm larva.Dr. Clinton White, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, told the Times that it is unlikely the worm was actually eating Kennedy’s brain as he described. White said tapeworm larva survives on nutrients from the body, and, in a difference from tapeworm larvae in the intestines, those in the brain remain relatively small. In regards to the memory loss Kennedy described, Scott Gardner, curator of the Manter Laboratory for Parasitology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said it’s likely Kennedy was suffering the effect of mercury poisoning, which he also described in the deposition, according to the Times. Kennedy told the Times he had recovered from the memory loss and fogginess and had no after-effects from the parasite. He said the condition did not require treatment. Kennedy’s campaign declined to provide his medical records to The Times. Neither President Joe Biden nor former President Donald Trump have released their medical records.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed doctors once discovered a worm that had died inside his brain.
That’s according to a report published Wednesday by the New York Times.
The Times reports Kennedy revealed the condition as part of a 2012 deposition during divorce proceedings.
In that deposition reviewed by the paper, the now-presidential candidate said he began experiencing severe memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010. After undergoing tests and scans, doctors originally believed Kennedy was suffering from a brain tumor, before a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital called him with a different opinion.
That doctor said he believed the issue “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in the deposition.
The Times reports Kennedy did not know the type of parasite, nor how he may have contracted it, but suspected he may have picked it up in South Asia.
The paper spoke to experts, who did not treat Kennedy, but generally theorized the worm may have been a pork tapeworm larva.
Dr. Clinton White, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, told the Times that it is unlikely the worm was actually eating Kennedy’s brain as he described. White said tapeworm larva survives on nutrients from the body, and, in a difference from tapeworm larvae in the intestines, those in the brain remain relatively small. In regards to the memory loss Kennedy described, Scott Gardner, curator of the Manter Laboratory for Parasitology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said it’s likely Kennedy was suffering the effect of mercury poisoning, which he also described in the deposition, according to the Times.
Kennedy told the Times he had recovered from the memory loss and fogginess and had no after-effects from the parasite. He said the condition did not require treatment.
Kennedy’s campaign declined to provide his medical records to The Times. Neither President Joe Biden nor former President Donald Trump have released their medical records.
