Her life is shattered by a rare parasite after a trip to Thailand

A 20-year-old woman's life turned into a nightmare after she was infected with a rare parasite during a family holiday in Thailand in 2015.

When Tess Swift went on a family holiday to Thailand, she was 20 years old, about to finish her nursing degree and excited about what the future held.

She had no idea that this holiday, and a rare parasite that was not identified in her body until seven years later, would turn her life into a nightmare.

"She always wanted to be a nurse and ended up being a patient for a very long time in many different hospitals," said her mother Virginia Dickson-Swift.

After landing in Australia after a busy holiday seven years ago, Swift began to feel unwell, but she blamed it on being abroad and eating differently.

A few weeks later, she ended up in the emergency room to have her appendix removed.

His appendix was found to be in good condition.

"I went back to hospital two or three days later with the same symptoms and that was just the beginning of the whole rollercoaster ride," said Ms Swift.

The 20-year-old was in and out of hospital for years.

She had to give up her nursing career in Melbourne and move back to her parents' home in Ocean Grove in just six months.

The 28-year-old underwent her last operation on Tuesday to resolve complications with her digestive tract.

"From 2015 to 2018, I was incredibly sick and was constantly in and out of emergency rooms and different specialist practices, and basically no one could figure out what was wrong with me," Swift said.

"I've been told a thousand different things, from eating disorder to things like irritable bowel syndrome, but every treatment they've tried hasn't brought improvement."

In 2018, she received her first feeding tube after it was determined that her digestive tract was partially paralysed.

In 2019, Swift said she was at her worst and spent six and a half weeks in hospital.

"My specialist decided to test me for a whole bunch of rare things, just to see if any of them gave the answer to why I was so unwell," she said.

One of these tests eventually provided the answer, but not for another three years, as the tests were carried out at BangkokIn Thailand, the Covid pandemic caused delays.

The long-awaited answer arrived at the Swift family home in the form of an unexpected letter from the Alfred Hospital in November 2022, informing them that Mrs Swift had tested positive for gnathostomiasiscaused by a rare parasite.

Mrs Swift and her mother, Dr Dickson-Swift, did not even know they were expecting a result.

"A letter arrived in the mail unexpectedly.

I thought it was a scam," said Dr Dickson-Swift.

"We have never been to the Alfred Hospital in our lives.

I thought 'why would we get a letter from the Alfred?

We opened it and it said 'Dear Tess, you have tested positive for gnathostomiasis, call me'.

Ms Swift started treatment to try to kill the parasite immediately.

"Basically, we just have to hope that the treatment was enough to kill the parasite, but unfortunately, even if the parasite is dead, it doesn't mean I'm going to feel better," she said.

"As the parasite has lived in me for many years, it has done a lot of damage and at present doctors have no way of repairing the damaged nerves, so any complications will be permanent unless new treatments are developed.

Ms Swift lives with severe chronic nausea and chronic pain, and has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, anxiety and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of medical trauma.

"Being in and out of hospital all the time and having a completely different life to what you thought it would be has a huge impact on your mental health," she said.

Ms Swift and Dr Dickson-Swift wanted to share her story to raise awareness of this rare parasite and encourage people to 'keep fighting' for answers when they are unwell.

"Thailand is an important travel destination for many Australians.

You don't expect something like this to happen just by going on holiday," said Ms Swift.

"It kind of ruined my life.

I was only 20 when it happened and there's so much that happens in your life when you're 20, and there's so much I had to miss because I was in hospital or too ill to go...

I ended up losing a lot of my friendships because I was so sick that I could never do anything.

"And that obviously had a huge impact on my career because I spent three years working my ass off at university and then couldn't use my degree."

The constant appointments, treatments, medications and surgeries have had a huge financial impact on the family.

Ms Swift returned to work towards the end of 2020 as a casual carer for people with disabilities.

But she explained that her own medical treatment, which she also has to do daily, feels like a full-time job.

Tess with elephants on her trip to Thailand

Dr Dickson-Swift said:

"I think we should perhaps test these parasites more often than we do.

"It's such a rare parasite.

The doctors we've spoken to since then didn't know him, they had never heard of him.

"We want to make people aware that this could be a possibility for someone returning from Asia.

And it is endemic in Thailand.

If you have been to the specific places where this thing is present, then it is a possibility.

It has to be a possibility.

Ms Swift and Dr Dickson-Swift discovered that there was only one specialist in Australia who deals with gnathostomiasis, and Ms Swift was her 68th patient diagnosed with the disease.

They said that after talking to Dr Andrew Fuller, who works in the Alfred Hospital's infectious diseases department, everything Ms Swift had experienced suddenly made sense.

Gnathostomiasis is a parasitic infection and humans can become infected by eating infected raw or undercooked freshwater fish, eels, frogs, birds and reptiles.

It is most commonly diagnosed in Asia, particularly in Thailand, other parts of South East Asia and Japan.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when a person eats the parasite, it moves through the lining of the stomach or intestine and into the liver.

Many people initially have no symptoms or may experience fever, excessive fatigue, lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or abdominal pain.

As the parasite moves under the skin, usually after 3 to 4 weeks, people may experience swelling under the skin which can be painful, red and itchy.

On rare occasions, it can enter other parts of the body, including the lungs, bladder, eyes, ears and nervous system, including the brain.

If the parasite enters the eye, it can lead to vision loss or blindness.

If the parasite enters a nerve or the spine, it usually causes severe nerve pain, followed by paralysis of the muscle controlled by the affected nerve.

If the parasite enters the brain, it can cause headaches, decreased consciousness, coma and death.

Source: News.com.au