Deadly Tick Bite Ruins Fashion Designer's Life

A 13-year-old tick bite has ruined the life and health of a former successful fashion designer.

Former fashion designer, Fine Rees, who also owned a lingerie boutique in London, got bitten and developed a bacterian infection by a tick while handling a monkey in South Africa in 2004. She did not receive proper treatment instantly which led the bacteria to spread all over her body, according to a report on the Daily Mail.

Rees can no longer practice her profession due to her deteriorated health condition.

In 2004 when the young designer was bitten by the tick, the matter passed uninvestigated. She could not get the proper treatment which ended now with her body being plagued with the late stage of Lyme disease.

The only treatment she got was a three-day antibiotic course in South Africa which is inadequate to fight the infection. A thirteen-year suffering has confined her to a bed and she has gone back to living with her parents in Warwickshire in 2010.

For moving around she needs a wheelchair while breathing becomes another problem at times when she has to rely on an oxygen mask. Her body goes through episodes of tremors while the bacterial infection is dangerously heading to cause her a cardiac arrest.

Ixodes ticks also known as deer ticks, transfer the bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi when it bites humans. It can affect any organ of the body, including muscles and joints, the brain and nervous system, and the heart. Lyme disease patinas are misdiagnosed due to its similar symptoms to other diseases. That is why the underlying infection progresses unchecked, according to Lyme Disease.

It was not until 2009 when she collapsed from extreme symptoms of the bacterial infection that the disease was detected. It turned out to be Lyme disease but it is too late now. She went to California last year for a treatment where her symptoms including tremors eased a little bit.

Her parents have sold their home and spent thousands of pounds on her treatment. Rees stated she still couldn't believe that a tiny tick bite can play havoc with her health to this extent. She is sad to see her life changed so drastically.

Rees is raising money to seek better treatment.