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When you find a tick on you, you can’t help but think of all the terrible possibilities. Maybe it has Lyme disease or is infecting you with some other nasty, horrible health condition. The thought eventually fades away with time, but it’s always lingering in the back of your mind. If they suffer a bite, some people will save the tick and have it analyzed in a lab or go straight to the doctor, but many just watch the bite area and pray it didn’t spread anything bad.
You can never know how a tick bite will play out, and despite them being on the rise, not much is known about the many complications and illnesses that the tiny insects carry. Even the most widely known disease that ticks spread, Lyme disease, is notoriously tricky to both diagnose and treat. The lesser known ones are even scarier and more sudden, like the one that took Crissy Naticchia’s husband Jeff’s life.
Crissy and Jeff had been married for 26 years and throughout the whole time she was with him she only remembers him getting sick twice. He was a healthy, active guy, and while he had recently become a little overweight, he’d been working hard to get back in shape. When he got sick the second time around, Chrissy thought he had the flu. He had a fever and was weak, but within the span of a few days his condition drastically worsened.
Jeff became too weak to stand and had such a high fever that his clothes were drenched in sweat. Fearing for his life, Crissy rushed him to the emergency room where doctors diagnosed him as having a kidney infection and given antibiotics. He returned home and his fever finally broke, but he still utterly exhausted. He knew something was wrong and wasn’t feeling any better. Crissy thought maybe he’d been misdiagnosed and brought him to the hospital again.
Doctors ordered more in depth tests for a number of possible diseases, but everything came back negative. They saw that Jeff’s liver and kidneys were shutting down and sent him to specialists who focused on liver malfunction. He was immediately placed on dialysis but two days later developed respiratory issues and had trouble breathing. He continued to deteriorate and ended up in the ICU where a ventilator helped him breathe. His prognosis was grim, but Crissy stayed strong and kept pushing for answers.
The hospital finally did have a diagnosis for Jeff, he was suffering from babesiosis. The tick-borne illness is caused by parasites that infect and attack red blood cells. Anyone can contract babesiosis but it’s more severe in the elderly, people who have weakened immune systems, and those who have had their spleen removed. Jeff had previously had his spleen removed and this was likely why he was suffering from such a severe reaction.
With news of the diagnosis, Chrissy was initially relieved, but that quickly turned to dread. She’d gone home to rest when she awoke to a call at 4:30 in the morning. The hospital called and told her to come quickly, her husband’s blood pressure was dropping fast, and his heart was giving out. Two hours later, Jeff passed away.
Crissy could not believe Jeff had died to suddenly and wants to use his story to raise awareness about tick-borne diseases and prevention. Tick related illnesses are on the rise and yet not many people are aware that those who’ve had a splenectomy (their spleen removed) or who have compromised immune systems, face a higher risk of serious illness or death. Healthy people are also at risk and if you take simple precautions to lessen the chance of getting bit by a tick it could save your life.
Watch the video below for the full story:
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