Story highlights The woman woke up with pain

Doctors said they've never seen this before

(CNN) The woman knew after waking up suddenly in the middle of the night that the pain in her head -- which had an itchy, scratchy feel to it -- couldn't be normal. Boy was she ever right.

A trip to the hospital yielded the cause -- doctors pulled a live cockroach from her skull.

The 42-year-old woman, who lives in a village outside of Chennai, India, ended up at Stanley Medical College.

She was complaining of a severe headache and was having difficulty breathing.

A doctor conducted an endoscopy to determine the source of her pain. At first he didn't see anything. Then he did -- the legs of some kind of creature.

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