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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 shake off “feeling bad” during a wrestling match in March as the stomach flu and “be tough” as a wrestler.
But he collapsed, vomited and continued to shake after a game, prompting his worried parents to take him to the hospital.
Doctors initially dismissed the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wrestler’s bruise as a common infection. But when his leg became red, swollen and extremely painful, he was again diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis – a rare bacterial infection that causes flesh to rot.
It is feared Mr Robb may have become infected when bacteria on a wrestling mat entered a cut or scrape on his leg and then overwhelmed his immune system, but it was not clear how he became infected.
Peyton Robb, 23, tried to pass off “feeling unwell” as a stomach bug and “be tough” as a wrestler. But it later turned out that he had necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease. To fight the infection, doctors cut out pieces of his skin and muscle that were infected (pictured above is his leg while recovering from the disease)
Mr Robb, pictured above at the Big Ten Championships on March 7, 2020, said a bruise developed on his leg during another wrestling match in March
Mr Robb underwent surgery for nearly two weeks while doctors excised ‘black spots’ on his shin, which indicated the illness, to remove the infection. The treatment worked and he has now spent six weeks recovering in hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Mr Robb has been competing competitively since 2020 and has made four appearances at the prestigious Big Ten Championships and two National College Athletics Association (NCAA) wrestling tournaments.
But while he was at the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in March representing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhuskers, he fell ill.
In a post on a fundraiser for the wrestler, it was revealed that Mr Robb fought his way through at least two matches with the bruise on his leg – losing both matches – before collapsing, shaking and vomiting, forcing him to be rushed to the emergency room was brought.
“I kept struggling because that’s just my way of thinking,” Mr Robb said OHS Magnet speak after treatment.
“I thought I just had the stomach flu or something that made me feel crumbly.”
A fundraiser added that after losing the semi-final on March 17, “His bruise was now extremely tender, but nothing he hadn’t experienced before.”
“He had to get hard, that’s what elite wrestlers are expected to do.”
Doctors in Oklahoma diagnosed him with strep cellulitis — a common bacterial infection — on his shin and gave him antibiotics before he was discharged.
However, when his condition worsened after returning to Lincoln, Nebraska, which is six hours by car from Tulsa, his girlfriend Taylor took him to doctors in town.
They quickly diagnosed him with sepsis — a life-threatening medical emergency in which inflammation can damage multiple organs — and discovered blood clots in his lungs. He also had a very high heart rate, low blood pressure and severe pain.
He was put on antibiotics and blood thinners to fight the disease and the clots in his lungs.
But it was at this point that “black spots” began to appear on his shin. These indicate that cells are dying, a sign that someone has necrotizing fasciitis.
He was then rushed to the operating room, where doctors excised the affected tissue to prevent the infection from reaching his bone, which could have led to an amputation.
Mr Robb has had to spend two and a half hours a day in a room that exposes the body to extra oxygen during his recovery. Scientists say this can speed up cell recovery
The wrestler was left with “excruciating” pain after the third surgery involving holes on both sides of his shin
During multiple surgeries over 13 days, they ended up cutting off large chunks of skin, as well as fascia — the cells under the skin — and muscle.
After his third operation, Mr Robb was described as having ‘excruciating pain’ and ‘two gaping incisions on each side of his shin’.
The fundraiser adds: “[The doctor] told his parents, Tracey and Carrie, that he would need to remove as much tissue as needed from Peyton’s leg until the necrosis (dead tissue) was resolved.
“And, I quote, “or your son may die.”
Speaking about the infection, Mr Robb told KCCI: ‘There were a lot of times where I was just in 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’s helped me through the whole process.”
Treatment was successful and Mr. Robb was subsequently transferred to a burn unit at CHI Health St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.
He spent the next six weeks on the ward, going to a special pressurized chamber five days a week for two hours and 15 minutes at a time to receive supplemental oxygen, which doctors say can speed recovery..
Roy Maurer, a resident physician at the hospital involved in the case, said: “By doing an operation, opening this up and cleaning it up a bit, and putting more oxygen into both tissues, from that wound that opens up, as well as just into the bloodstream, actually helps some kind of suppression and helps kill the bacteria, in addition to antibiotics.”
Mr Robb is currently recovering and hopes to wrestle again in a few months.
He is shown above rubbing cream on his injured leg, where the necrotizing fasciitis came on
He is pictured above giving the thumbs up from his hospital bed
Mr Robb, pictured above at the Big Ten Championships on March 7, 2020, said a bruise developed on his leg during another wrestling match in March
It was not clear how he contracted the necrotizing fasciitis, which is caused when bacteria enter the body through a cut in the skin and are not fought off by the immune system.
But cellulite, which he was initially diagnosed with, can be caused by picking up bacteria from equipment such as wrestling and yoga mats.
Those who participate in contact sports, such as wrestling, are also at greater risk for bacterial infections, doctors say because of 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 is a medical emergency due to the rapid spread of bacteria.
It can be activated when bacteria that live harmlessly on the surface of the skin or objects — such as Streptococcus or Staphylococcus — get under the skin and begin to colonize tissue.
These are normally fought by the immune system, but in some cases they can overwhelm the immune system and cause an infection.
At this point, they begin to multiply and spread rapidly, up to a few centimeters per hour, and release toxins into the tissue that cause necrosis or cell death.
The bacteria can then also spread through the bloodstream in the body and cause inflammation throughout the body.
This leads to symptoms such as fever, chills, low blood pressure, and organ dysfunction.
Treatment for the condition includes emergency surgery to excise the affected tissue and remove the bacterial infection, as well as administering antibiotics.
About 20 to 30 percent of patients do not survive the infection, statistics show, with cases of late diagnosis having a higher risk of death.