Victoria Stellas was diagnosed with tick-borne encephalitis, which causes inflammation of the brain, following a vacation in Greece
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NEED TO KNOW
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A mom was left in an induced coma for 42 days after getting a tick bite on vacation in Greece in 2019
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Victoria Stellas, 51, was diagnosed with tick-borne encephalitis, which causes inflammation of the brain and can be fatal
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She was unable to keep her jobs working at a bar and as a teacher’s aide in a special education school, and still lives with memory issues and night seizures
A mom has spoken about how a tick bite she got on vacation left her in a coma for more than a month and gave her long-lasting health problems.
Victoria Stellas, 51, was on vacation in Syros, an island in Greece, in 2019 when she began experiencing flu-like symptoms after being bitten, though she didn’t realize the cause at the time.
When she returned home to Anglesey in Wales, she started having night seizures and went to the hospital, she told the BBC.
After she had an MRI scan, she was flown by helicopter to the Walton Centre in Liverpool, about 80 miles away, where she was placed in an induced coma for 42 days.
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She was diagnosed with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), a potentially fatal condition that causes inflammation of the brain.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, TBE is a viral illness spread by ticks in some parts of Europe and Asia. Ticks in the U.S. do not carry the virus.
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Many people have no symptoms or just the flu-like symptoms Stellas had at first, but some can experience seizures, facial paralysis, confusion and memory loss and muscle weakness.
The condition can also cause long-lasting or chronic symptoms, as the mom of one found.
“Altogether it was about six months from when I was in hospital, the treatment afterwards,” she told the BBC about her ordeal. “It’s changed my life completely … I don’t go out as much.”
Because of the memory loss she still experiences, she was unable to keep her jobs at a bar and as a teacher’s aide at a special education school.
“Tell me a job that doesn’t require memory? Everything you do in life requires a memory,” she told the outlet. “When I returned home … I couldn’t remember the names of children in different classes and staff.
“I would recogniseze everyone but not the names and that’s still a problem to this day,” the mom of one added.
She now needs to take between 15 and 18 tablets a day, but told the BBC that her night seizures aren’t as regular as they used to be.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises vaccination before traveling to areas affected, along with using insect repellent and wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants to reduce the risk of tick bites.
Stellas, who returns to Greece each year for a vacation after moving to Wales when she was 5, was not aware of the vaccine before she became ill with the virus, per the BBC.
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She now shares her story with students at nearby Bangor University once a year, encouraging them to get the vaccine when traveling to at-risk areas.
“I’m lucky to have my family and my friends who’ve supported me throughout the years,” she told the BBC.
Her mom, Liz Stellas, added, “Insect bites can cause profound change in your life. I don’t think people are aware of it.”
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