A tumour growing inside of Amanda Murphy caused a headache so severe that it drove her to stab herself in the head with a knife to try and relieve the pain. What is even more shocking is that surgeons found hair and teeth inside her tumour when they removed it from her right ovary. Amanda's ordeal started three days before Christmas when she went to work with a blistering headache. Amanda Murphy, from Rutherford in New South Wales, was struck down with a headache just before Christmas . A tumour found in ovary caused her to stab herself in the head and go into a psychosis. Amanda's (left) sister, Rachael (right), had to watch her sister go through the ordeal . As the day wore on and the pain did not go away, Amanda, from Rutherford in New South Wales, texted her sister - Rachael - who told her to go to the sick bay. When Rachael, 27, visited her later in the day, she became concerned when Amanda complained there was 'something in my head' and she needed to get it out. The 27-year-old told that's life! Amanda's forehead did look swollen so she took her to hospital, where doctors did some tests and found nothing wrong with her. They sent the sisters back home with painkillers for Amanda - who is a mine truck driver - to take. But her condition did not improve. The 28-year-old spent the next two days in an agitated state, with her boyfriend - Nathan - reporting she could not sleep. On Christmas Day, Rachael told Daily Mail Australia her father had left messages to say her sister had been re-admitted to hospital. It took specialists weeks to diagnose Amanda's condition, which caused her to experience mood swings . Amanda before the tumour took over her body and drove her to take up a knife and stab herself in the head to relieve the pressure of her headache . Frantically, she rushed to be at her sister's bedside but nothing prepared her for what she would see when she walked into Amanda's room. 'She had blood on top of her head, she was strapped to the bed and rocking back forth while they were trying to do the lumbar puncture,' Rachael said. The condition mostly affects young women who end up in being misdiagnosed and are admitted into psychiatric care or display behaviour so erratic they are kept in intensive care, according to the ABC. The tumour found on the ovary is named a teratoma, which could possibly have teeth, hair or brain tissue. This tricks the body's immune system into attacking the brain. Her father told Rachael that Amanda had tried to stab herself in the head with a knife. 'She was so distraught about the pressure on her head that she had tried sucking it out with a vacuum prior to doing it with a knife,' Rachael told Daily Mail Australia. The situation had escalated so much that the police had to be called to calm Amanda down before she was taken to hospital. When the tests from the lumbar puncture came back, doctors diagnosed her with encephalitis. Encephalitis happens when the brain becomes swollen and inflamed from a virus. But after days of treatment it was clear Amanda was not responding, falling into a psychosis where she did eat or sleep. Surgeons found an 8cm tumour on Amanda's right ovary, which had hair and teeth inside it . Amanda and partner Nathan who stayed with her throughout the ordeal in hospital . One time Rachael fed her sister water and she spat it out at her. Amanda would also throw abuse at her loved ones and hospital staff. Things got so bad that Amanda was transferred to the psychiatric ward at Sydney's Mater Hospital where she could be supervised by a nurse 24 hours a day. Her behaviour became increasingly worse, to the point where she was yelling and being aggressive towards Rachael and staff, but in the next moment she was staring into space. Before her illness, Rachael described her sister as 'very outgoing'. 'She was always the one to have a comeback. She was very cheeky,' Rachael told Daily Mail Australia. '[She] was a completely different [person], it wasn't her at all.' For weeks, Amanda's condition had specialists puzzled but finally they got their answer. After performing an ultrasound on her abdomen, doctors found a benign tumour on her right ovary containing brain matter, which was causing the immune system to attack her brain. One nurse likened it to 'a monster growing inside' of Amanda. Her condition, ovarian teratoma encephalitis, is believed to only affect one in seven people. Surgeons removed the 8cm tumour on her ovary, but there was another surprise inside it - hair and teeth. But it was a long road to recovery for the truck driver who spent another two months in hospital and went through a brain-injury rehabilitation clinic. Amanda told Daily Mail Australia she had no memory of the weeks she was affected by her tumour. 'I don't remember anything from first week of hospital to nearly the February after that,' she said. 'I don’t remember waking up until mid-February. That was when I was able to think on my own.' Despite the months that have passed, Rachael thinks her sister is still not back to the Amanda she knew. 'She's not Amanda she was prior to getting sick. She's not 100 per cent I don't think.' For more real life stories, see this week’s issue of that’s life! magazine, on sale now.
Amanda Murphy, from Rutherford in NSW, woke up with a painful headache . Hours later she was admitted to hospital but doctors sent her home again . Three days later, she went to hospital again when she tried to stab herself . She took up a knife to try and relieve the crippling pressure on her brain . Weeks later, Amanda was having mood swings leaving specialists puzzled . Sister Rachael said Amanda attacked and yelled at family and hospital staff . Doctors found a tumour growing on her ovary, which had brain matter in it . It was causing Amanda's immune system to attack her healthy brain tissue . When surgeons removed the 8cm tumour, they found hair and teeth inside .