Man, 20, with a constant runny nose finds out his brain was poking out and 'leaking'

A man who complained about a constant runny nose for more than half a decade was horrified to discover the condition was caused by his leaking brain. The 20-year-old Syrian suffered from the chronic issue over six years following a head injury , during which time he also experienced headaches and seizures. But he failed to raise the alarm with a medical professional, believing instead that he was experiencing the symptoms of a cold.

Doctors later discovered that the persistent leakage was not a bad case of the sniffles, concluding that the liquid was actually cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dripping down his nasal passage. As if the presence of the liquid wasn't alarming enough, imaging taken by medics showed the situation was much worse than it appeared. The Daily Mail reports that, following brain scans, medics diagnosed the man with traumatic encephalocele, a condition where brain matter exits through openings in the skull.



Typically, encephalocele is a rare birth defect and affects one in 10,400 births worldwide, roughly 375 babies a year. The Syrian man had developed traumatic encephalocele, an even rarer condition where injury causes the same symptoms over years without treatment. He had been involved in a car accident six years before his symptoms developed, but at the time had refused medical treatment despite being taken to hospital.

Years after suffering headaches and seizures, he developed meningoencephalitis - another rare and life-threatening condition in which someone develops both meningitis and encephalitis simultaneously - but didn't report to hospital for two months. He only sought medical help for his nasal leakage, and was immediately admitted to intensive care. He stayed in an intensive care unit for a month, during which time a scan revealed his fractured skull and encephalocele, which had developed in his nasal cavity.

Layers of tissue were bulging through the fracture, with doctors noting "significant expansion" into the right-side areas of his brain. Despite recommending surgery, the man refused medical care once again and left the hospital. He returned two months later for a follow-up when he finally agreed to receive surgery, and he has since made a full recovery after a neurosurgeon returned the bulging tissue and reversed the damage.

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