It's definitely not uncommon to catch a cold—especially in the fall and winter months of the year. But for a man from the United States, his 'harmless cold'— which lasted a whopping five years—turned out to be a real horrible diagnosis, as ABC11 reports.
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Five years and no definitive diagnosis
Greg Phillpotts, from New York, has been struggling with an annoying cold for five years. He was sniffling all the time and constantly and a runny nose. At first the doctors thought it was a by-product of his allergies, but in reality it had a completely different. Phillpotts consulted with several doctors to get to the bottom of his chronic cold who eliminated allergies as the cause. He was left dumbfounded when one day he had to rush to the hospital because he could barely breathe and couldn't sleep.
From 'permanent cold' to even worse
The man finally received a diagnosis from Dr. Alfred Iloreta from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He said his 'cold' was actually cerebral fluid that kept popping out of his nose! The physician explains that the leakage of cerebral fluid is the first warning sign of an ascending infection. It's now easy for bacteria to penetrate the brain from the nose and trigger a potentially life-threatening meningitis.
Check out the video to see how things worked out (or didn't?) for Greg Phillpotts!
