To the family's horror, it has been discovered Cain picked up a rare parasite, which attached itself to his spleen, making him incredibly ill
Cain Matthews celebrated his 18th birthday on November 12 last year, the next day, he was in hospital where he became an inpatient in the critical care ward. The young man, from Ballysillan, had complained of feeling unwell - doctors then discovered a cyst the size of a football on his spleen.
"I looked at it and thought, 'In the name of good Lord, what is that?' His whole upper left abdominal area was totally descended. We took him straight to A&E. They just couldn't figure out what was wrong at first. "They were trying everything to find out what was wrong. It was compressing all of his organs and he couldn't breathe, so they said they needed to drain it. If it had of ruptured, he would have died.
Nicola says she knew something more was wrong with her son. But she and her husband Gary didn't expect to receive the news that their son had a parasite in his body. "They checked his pathology of the fluid that was drained. The mass was the size of a football and had lots of little lumps and bumps over it. It cane back that Cain has Hydatid Disease which is a parasite.
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