A young girl checked into a Florida hospital complaining of unbearable stomach pains. Thinking the girl was pregnant, ER nurse Maricar Cabral-Osorio gave the girl an ultrasound.

To the nurse's surprise, there was no sign of a fetus but the girl's intestines were extremely swollen. While Cabral-Osorio and her colleagues tried to figure out what was causing the swelling, the girl excused herself to go to the toilet.

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After a few minutes, the girl screamed from the bathroom -- she had found tapeworms in her fecal waste.

Cabral-Osorio recalled the story and shared it with the TV program, Discovery Fit & Health, Untold Stories of the ER.

According to Cabral-Osorio, "It was so gross and she had pooped all these tapeworms. There were a couple that were very long and wiggling around trying to get out of the toilet."

While the girl was terrified, her mother remained calm. After some prodding, her mother confessed she had bought a tapeworm pill in Mexico and secretly gave it to her daughter so she could lose weight.

The girl, who usually joined beauty pageants, had an upcoming competition.

After confessing, the mother said, "I'm so sorry. You know, I did it just to make you a little skinnier. You needed some help before we went on to the pageant."

It was not revealed if the mother was charged with abuse.

Tapeworms, which are flat and segmented worms, are known to live in the intestines of certain animals and can affect human beings, as well.

Symptoms of a tapeworm infection include nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue.

Although rare, a tapeworm infection can cause serious complications such as intestine blockage. If tapeworm eggs from pork are consumed, they can move to other parts of the body and cause life-threatening damage to the liver, heart, brain and eyes.

TagsWeight Loss, tapeworm, mom feeds daughter a tapeworm, aid weight loss mom