- Man discovers true source of "runny nose"
- Requires surgery to fix the leaking brain fluid
- What's the strangest diagnosis you've received?
YES. Your brain. Leaking.
Imagine one man's horror when he learned his chronic case of runny nose was actually a chronic case of grey matter leakage.
Joe Nagy figured his runny nose was caused by allergies, or hay fever. Then he learned the shocking truth, CBS reports.
"Brooop! [sic] This clear liquid dribbled out of my nose like tears out of your eyes," he told My Fox Phoenix. "I go, 'What is this?'
He recalls a particular situation when the "runny nose" made a mess of some model plane blueprints.
"It was about a teaspoon full, splashed all over the top sheet. I said, 'These damn allergies.'
"I was embarrassed as hell."
Mr Nagy was required to have surgery to fix the leaky brain.
Neurosurgeon Peter Nakaji, of the Barrow Neurological Institute, said the leaking fluid had caused a tiny hole in Mr Nagy's brain, causing the "runny nose" symptoms.
The surgery was a success, and Mr Nagy's symptoms have subsided. Which leaves one final question: how do you fix a leaky brain?
"Nowadays we do quite a bit of surgery on the brain and base of brain through the nose," Dr Najaki said.
"We never have to cut up into the brain. We're getting a needle up into the space to check it out, and then to put a little bit of glue.
"This is just a bit of cartilage from the nose that we can get to repair over it and then the body will seal it up."
Good to know.