Tess Swift caught a rare parasite while on vacation in Thailand in 2015. Her life hasn’t been the same since.
Her dream vacation to Thailand turned into a seven-year nightmare for Tess Swift, 28: The Australian traveled to Kata Beach in Phuket with her family in 2015, but returned to Melbourne with a stomach ailment. Two months ago, after countless hospital stays, it finally became clear what was wrong with her: Tess had contracted a rare parasite.
The woman documents on Instagram how her life changed after the trip to Thailand. Only now did she get the answers she so desperately wanted.
Constantly in the emergency room
While on vacation, she became ill with what is known as gnathostomiasis. The disease attacked her digestive system, Tess told Australian portal News.com.au. Just a few weeks after her return, she ended up in the emergency room and had to have her appendix removed. After the operation, however, her appendix was found to be healthy. “Two or three days later I went back to the hospital with the same symptoms, and that was just the beginning of a roller coaster ride,” says Tess.
For years it went like this: Tess came to the hospital and was discharged again. At that time, she had to give up her training as a specialist nurse and return to her parents’ home in Ocean Grove. “I was incredibly sick. I was constantly in the emergency room and seeing different specialists, but no one knew what I had,” says Tess.
Exciter did a lot of damage
Diagnoses have always been given a new name: from eating disorders to irritable bowel syndrome. The treatments suggested by the doctors did not help. “I didn’t feel any better. On the contrary,” she says. In 2018, she received her first feeding tube after it was discovered that her digestive tract was partially paralyzed. A year later it got worse and Tess spent over a month and a half in the hospital.
“My doctor decided to test me for a number of rare diseases,” said the Australian. With the pandemic, investigations were postponed – finally, in November 2022, one of the samples gave the answer. In a letter, the hospital said she had tested positive for gnathostomiasis, a rare pathogen.
Tess Swift started treatment to kill the parasite. “As the parasite has lived inside me for many years, it has caused a lot of damage and at the moment there is no way for doctors to repair the damaged nerves.”
Test for parasites if you’ve been to Asia
Doctors believe that much of the resulting damage will remain with her forever. Tess still suffers from chronic nausea and severe pain today. She also suffers from depression and anxiety due to the trauma. “The constant hospitalizations and the fact that life is completely different from what I imagined is a huge burden for me,” she said.
She now wants people returning from an Asian country with symptoms of the disease to be tested for parasites more quickly. “It’s a parasite so rare that the doctors who treated me had no idea, they had never heard of it.”
Navigation account 20 minutes Time15.01.2023, 12:41| Act: 01/15/2023, 1:50 pm