Newlyweds both contract brain-invading parasite on honeymoon

By Around the Web

(WTIC) A California couple’s honeymoon to Hawaii left them in agony after both newlyweds contracted rat lungworm disease, according to KGMB-TV.

Ben Manilla, 64, and Eliza Lape, 57, got married on Maui in January, then spent two weeks in the island’s remote Hana area for their honeymoon. Lape told the station she felt something was wrong before they even left Hawaii, likening the symptoms to “somebody taking a hot knife and just stabbing me in different parts of my body.”

Manilla, a teacher at University of California at Berkley’s Graduate School of Journalism, told KGMB the parasite landed him in the intensive care unit for two months. Manilla said he’s had “several operations, two pneumonias, a blood clot … (and) a kidney issue, all of which was spurred by the rat lung.”

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