A college wrestler nearly lost his leg after a bruise on his left shin turned out to be a flesh-eating bacterial infection.
Peyton Robb, 23, tried to ignore “feeling bad” at a wrestling competition in March like a stomach virus and “be tough” like a wrestler.
But he collapsed, vomited and was left shaking after a game, prompting his concerned parents to rush him to the hospital.
Doctors initially ruled out the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wrestler’s bruise as a common infection. But when his leg turned red, swollen and extremely painful, he was re-diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare bacterial infection that rots away flesh.
There are fears that Mr Robb was infected when bacteria on a wrestling mat entered through a cut or scratch on his leg and then overwhelmed his immune system, but it was unclear how he became infected.
Peyton Robb, 23, tried to shrug off “feeling bad” like a stomach virus and “being tough” like a wrestler. But then it emerged that he had necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease. To fight the infection, doctors cut away parts of the skin and muscle from him that were infected (the photo above is his leg recovering from the disease).
Mr. Robb, pictured above at the Big Ten Championships on March 7, 2020, said that he developed a bruise on his leg during another wrestling competition in March.
Mr Robb was in and out of surgery for nearly two weeks as doctors cut ‘black dots’ on his pimple, indicating disease, to clear out the infection. The treatment worked and he has now spent six weeks recovering in a hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Mr. Robb has been competing competitively since at least 2020 and has appeared four times in the prestigious Big Ten Championships and twice in National College Athletics Association (NCAA) wrestling tournaments.
But while at the NCAA championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last March, representing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhuskers, he fell ill.
In a post about a fundraiser for the wrestler, it was revealed that Mr. Robb wrestled for at least two bouts with the bruise on his leg, losing both bouts, before collapsing, shaking and vomiting, leading to his death. emergency room.
“I kept fighting because that’s my mindset,” Robb told OHSMagnet after treatment.
“I thought I just had a stomach bug or something that was making me feel sick.”
A fundraiser added that after losing the semi-final on March 17: “Her bruise was now extremely sensitive, but nothing she hadn’t experienced before.”
“He was supposed to get tough, that’s what you expect from elite fighters.”
Doctors in Oklahoma diagnosed her with strep cellulitis, a common bacterial infection, on her pimple and gave her antibiotics before she was released.
However, when his condition worsened after returning to Lincoln, Nebraska, which is a six-hour drive from Tulsa, his girlfriend Taylor took him to doctors in the city.
He was quickly diagnosed with sepsis, a life-threatening medical emergency in which inflammation can damage multiple organs, and found blood clots in his lungs. She also had a very high heart rate, low blood pressure, and severe pain.
He was given antibiotics and blood thinners to fight the disease and the clots in his lungs.
But it was at that moment that ‘black dots’ began to appear on his pimple. These indicate that cells are dying, a sign that someone has necrotizing fasciitis.
He was then rushed into surgery where doctors cut away the affected tissue to prevent infection from reaching his bone, which could have led to an amputation.
Robb has had to sit in a chamber for two and a half hours a day during his recovery, exposing his body to extra oxygen. Scientists say this can speed up cell recovery.
The fighter was left in ‘unbearable’ pain after the third surgery with holes in both sides of his shin.
During multiple operations in 13 days, they ended up cutting away large chunks of skin, as well as fascia, the cells under the skin, and muscle.
After his third surgery, Mr. Robb was described as being in “excruciating pain” and having “two open incisions on each side of his shin.”
The fundraiser adds: ‘[The doctor] he told his parents, Tracey and Carrie, that he would need to remove as much tissue as necessary from Peyton’s leg until the necrosis (dead tissue) was treated.
And, I quote, “or your son could die.”
Speaking about the infection, Mr. Robb told KCCI: “There were a lot of times where I felt a little bit of pain.”
“Sometimes it was just subtle, sometimes a little more.
‘[But] I just learned to keep that positive outlook in whatever situation you find yourself in, and I think that got me through the whole thing.
Treatment was successful and Mr. Robb was later transferred to a burn unit at CHI Health St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
He spent the next six weeks in the unit going into a special pressurized chamber five days a week for two hours and 15 minutes each time to receive extra oxygen, which doctors say can speed recovery..
Roy Maurer, a physician assistant at the hospital who was involved in the case, said: “By doing surgery, opening this up and cleaning it out, as well as introducing more oxygen both to the tissue, from when the wound was opened, as well as just in the bloodstream, it basically helps suppress and helps kill bacteria in addition to antibiotics.’
Mr. Robb is currently in recovery and hopes to be able to return to wrestling in a few months.
He is shown above rubbing cream into his injured leg, where the necrotizing fasciitis arose.
He is pictured above giving a thumbs up from his hospital bed.
Mr. Robb, pictured above at the Big Ten Championships on March 7, 2020, said that he developed a bruise on his leg during another wrestling competition in March.
It was not clear how he contracted necrotizing fasciitis, which is triggered when bacteria enter the body through a break in the skin and the immune system fails to fight them.
But cellulite, which she was initially diagnosed with, can be caused by bacteria from equipment like wrestling and yoga mats.
Those who participate in contact sports, such as wrestling, are also at higher risk of bacterial infections, doctors say, due to frequent skin-to-skin contact with opponents and wrestling mats.
Necrotizing fasciitis is rare in the US, with about 700 to 1,150 cases in the country each year, but it is a medical emergency due to the rapid spread of bacteria.
It can be triggered when bacteria that live harmlessly on the surface of the skin or on objects, such as Streptococcus or Staphylococcus, get under the skin and begin to colonize the tissue.
These are normally fought off by the immune system, but in some cases, they can overwhelm the immune system and trigger an infection.
At this point, they begin to multiply and spread rapidly, up to several centimeters per hour, releasing toxins into the tissue that cause necrosis, or cell death.
The bacteria can also begin to spread within the body through the bloodstream, triggering inflammation throughout the body.
This leads to symptoms like fever, chills, low blood pressure, and organ dysfunction.
Treatment for the condition includes emergency surgery to remove the affected tissue and eliminate the bacterial infection, as well as giving antibiotics.
About 20 to 30 percent of patients do not survive the infection, statistics show, and late-diagnosed cases have a higher risk of death.
I am Alomgir Sk, I associated with Elite News as an Editor, since 2021. I take care of all the news operations like content, budget, hiring and policy making.