A rare medical phenomenon of parasitism (possibly symbiosis) of a cactus on a living person is informally called “cactus people”. Several such examples are reported by both special medical reference books and the press.
The most famous case involves a girl named Narine from Yerevan. He was repeatedly written about in the Russian press. It all started when Narine was watering flowers in 1995 and accidentally pricked her hand on a cactus. The wound did not want to heal for a long time. Narine was too lazy to go to the doctor, and a month later the tip of a thorn appeared from the reddened spot. Narine was then 18 years old and she did not yet know how much this infection would affect her life.
When Narine finally decided to go to the hospital, the doctors easily removed two strange thorns from the festering wound with tweezers. However, two days later, new thorns began to sprout in the same place.
“In world practice, not a single case is known when plant cells have taken root and parasitized in the human or animal body,” says Tigran Davtyan, head. laboratory of immunology and virology of the "Armenika" research center. “We gave several thorns from the patient's body to the Institute of Botany, where it was proved that they are of plant origin. We even managed to identify the type of cactus - common cereus. Such a cactus in Armenia stands on the windowsill in every home! The cells from Ayvazyan's wound and the cells of this plant were identical!
Doctors did not come up with another way how to surgically remove the fistula until the cactus began to parasitize throughout the body. After the operation, the wound healed and for four years did not remind the sufferer of herself.
But after 4 years, the cactus again reminded of itself.
- For a long time my daughter could not recover from the shock, she looked at everything and felt her hand, said: "Mom, I'm afraid that they will come back, climb again." “Forget it, like a bad dream,” I persuaded her, recalled Anahit, the girl’s mother. - But Narine changed, became withdrawn, did not communicate with her girlfriends, with the guys. At the same time, she did not betray her flowers - she always watered on time, albeit with caution.
When the wrist began to turn red again, Narine said: "The mosquito bit, and I combed it." And the parents readily believed their daughter, fearing that the truth would be too cruel. But then the girl's entire forearm became swollen, the pain became unbearable. Finally, a thorn ripped through the skin - this time the size of a match.
Promotional video:
“The fistula was formed in the area where the tendons are located,” says Seet Ghazaryan, surgeon at the Eribone Medical Center. - Narine clenched her hand into a fist, with the help of muscles a new thorn was removed to the surface (there was no blood), and we removed it with tweezers. Before our eyes, every three days, from 70 to 100 thorns came out of the patient's hand! Then we repeatedly removed them, but they appeared again - apparently, 2-3 parasite cells remained in the girl's body. We turned to specialists from Russia, Armenia, France … And they argued that the problem here was not of a surgical but of a microbiological nature.
After examining the structure of large thorns, biologists concluded that this time they were not of plant origin at all: "As a result of the mutation, new, unknown cells appeared - a kind of hybrid of humans and plants."
In other words, Narine Ayvazyan was gradually turning into a cactus.
Tigran Davtyan believes that such a metamorphosis warns mankind about many things: “With evolution and progress, our immune system suffers more and more, it malfunctions. And we are more and more susceptible to unknown parasites and viruses."
"Why was I born at all ?!" - Narine asked herself more and more often in 2005, continuing to fight with her own body - pulling thorns out of it. And after she had blood poisoning, rumors even spread throughout Yerevan that the cactus girl had died. Later it turned out that she was alive, but already completely bad - she spent all day at home on the couch and did not want to see anyone: "The doctors still cannot help her …"
More recent news about Narine and her health could not be found online.
This case of cactus parasitism is not the only one. A similar story happened to a Japanese tourist who, while traveling through the desert regions of the United States, pricked himself on a cactus, and after a while, thorns also began to grow from his body at home.
Another case, which occurred in Russia, was also briefly reported in the newspapers, but this time they did not even indicate the name of the patient.
According to the logic of things, "cactus people" most of all should be exactly where these plants grow in large quantities (USA, Mexico, and other countries of Latin America), however, nothing is known about similar stories with local residents.