Man Leaking Brain Fluid: How A Chronic Runny Nose Led To A Startling Diagnosis [VIDEO]

A man assumed that his chronic runny nose, that sometimes endured for an entire year, was due to allergies.

But the patient, Joe Nagy, recently found out that he was actually leaking brain fluid through his nasal passages.

Nagy first detected the condition after waking up one morning.

"Brooop! [sic] This clear liquid dribbled out of my nose like tears out of your eyes," he told KSAZ-TV.

"I go, 'What is this?'"

Nagy said that the runny nose started out occurring once to twice a week, but then started to increase in frequency as time went on. The leaky nose even started to interfere with day-to-day activities.

"It was about a teaspoon fun [of the liquid]," Nagy said about an embarrassing moment when his runny nose leaked onto blueprints for a model airplane.

"Splashed all over the top sheet...I said, 'These damn allergies.'"

"I was embarrassed as hell."

Nagy resorted to allergy medication and an endless supply of tissues to cope with the constant runny nose, but eventually looked to experts for help with his troubling issue.

And that is when Nagy found out that he had a small hole in his brain that was leaking fluid.

"I was scared to death if you want to know the truth," he said about finding out about the startling diagnosis.

Dr. Peter Nakaji of Barrow Neurological Institute said that it's plausible for someone with a condition like Nagy's to go on with their day-to-day activities without even knowing anything was wrong.

"These leaks can be a very, very tiny, a little like a puncture on a bicycle tire, that sometimes you have trouble finding where it is," he said.

Nakaji added that the brain replenishes 12 ounces of brain fluid per day.

Nagy's condition was eventually fixed by a surgical procedure, but had to delay the operation due to meningitis.

And Nakaji said that it wasn't necessary to make an incision on the brain for the procedure.

"Nowadays we do quite a bit of surgery on the brain and base of the brain through the nose. We never have to cut up into the brain. We're getting a needle up into the space to check it out, and then to put a little bit of glue," he said.

"This is just a bit of cartilage from the nose that we can get to repair over it and then the body will seal it up."