US man's 'runny nose' turns out to be brain fluid

  • 18/11/2018
Greg Philpotts with a tissue stuffed up his nose to stop the leakage.
Greg Philpotts with a tissue stuffed up his nose to stop the leakage. Photo credit: Screenshot/ABC

A US man was left shocked after discovering the fluid leaking out of his nose wasn't from his sinuses, but his brain.

Greg Phillpotts had struggled with a running nose for several months before he eventually made it to the doctor earlier this year, ABC reports.

The fluid had dripped from his nose constantly, including at one point into his family's Thanksgiving dinner, ruining it completely.

"You could be anywhere. You could be on the airplane, you could be talking to anybody and this thing just drains out of your face," he said.

Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and bronchitis, and coughing and spluttering became the new normal until things reached fever pitch in February.

"I was up all night coughing. You're sitting here, you're a family man; you don't want to check out of the picture when it's something someone could readily fix," he told ABC.

Mr Phillpotts went to New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, where doctors quickly realised what was coming out of his nose was actually cerebrospinal fluid.

"It's the leakage of fluid that surrounds the brain to cushion it primarily to protect it from shock or trauma or anything like that," Dr Alfred Iloreta told ABC.

"Sometimes when you have this leakage of the fluid from the brain, it can evolve into what we call an ascending infection. So bacteria can travel from the nose to the brain resulting in meningitis."

It only took a small surgery to sort out the drip, and Mr Phillpotts said he's now very relieved its gone.

Dr Iloreta said to keep an eye on fluids coming out of only one side of your nose, especially if there's a salty taste with it and you have an intense headache.

Newshub.