A parasite ate my face: How traveller who proposed to his girlfriend in Peru was almost killed by flesh-eating bug

When Adam Spencer's girlfriend accepted his marriage proposal as they travelled through South Ame r ica, the couple could begin thinking of a happy life together.

But their dream trip soon turned into a nightmare when a scab began developing on the 23-year-old's face.

T he disfiguring, pus-filled wound soon spread over his cheek and rather than looking forward to the future, Mr Spencer was left fearing for his life as he learned he was being devoured by a flesh-eating parasite - which could potentially kill him.

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Vile: A disfiguring, pus-filled scab spread across the 23-year-old's face

Mr Spencer and girlfriend Shalynn Pack, from Veneta, Oregon, were in the middle of a six-month trip across South America when they got engaged at the top of the Inca Trail on Machu Pichu in Peru.



It was after two romantic months hiking and bird-watching in the Amazon that Mr Spencer noticed a spot on his face as they crossed the Bolivian salt flats.

'It was almost hardened, a scab,' said Mr Spencer - but the betrothed couple dismissed it as nothing serious.

However, the spot grew in size and turned red. Soon pus began weeping from the open sore.

Mr Spencer got antibiotics from a local doctor and hoped the mysterious infection would clear up.

Instead, after a night partying in Bolivia, he woke up to find the spot had erupted. 'It was the size of a nickel,' he said. 'It was indented into my face and looked raw.'

A worried Miss Pack realised her fiance's wound would need more than antibiotics to heal.

Revolting: Adam Spencer kept a video diary about how he felt as the infection affected his voice and got close to his eye

He was bandage d and given a sho t , pills and ointment by a clinic - but when the horrified couple looked at their holiday snaps, they noticed that his face was becoming more and more swollen.

On returning home to Oregon, Mr Spencer s aw his GP, Stephan Ames of Thurston Medical Clinic, Springfield .

Dr Ames said: 'Adam came in with a wound on the right side of his face. It was firm, but soft and mushy on the inside.



'I was concerned it was a staph infection (caused by staphyloccocus bacteria), which can infect multiple organs and could cause him to die .'

Instead of planning his wedding with friends and family, Mr Spencer was now dealing with a potentially fatal illness .

He took penicillin for a week to no effect. Tests showed no evidence of a staph infection and the wound kept growing.



South American adventure: Mr Spencer, who had just got engaged, initially thought he just had a spot picked up thanks to the stress and grime of travelling

Miss Pack said : 'We didn't know when it was going to stop. It was encroaching his eye, it was pretty frightening.'

Having lunch the day before a specialist appointment, Mr Spencer found he couldn't swallow and his mouth felt raw, like sandpaper .

His girlfiend looked into his mouth with a torch and saw large white lumps, and the back of his throat looked malformed.

'It was terrifying,' she said. 'I was scared it could affect his voice. It was terrifying to think, "I'm just watching him die" .'



Terrified: Shalynn Pack, Mr Spencer's girlfriend, feared for his life as she learnt that a parasite was burrowing through his body

Mr Spencer's wound grew to about 2 inch es across. 'I felt like my body was breaking down ,' he said.

Specialist Dr William Muth, of the Samaritan Infectious Disease clinic in Corvallis, realised the wound could be Mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis, caused by the organism Leishmania - a single-cell parasite.

His immune cells were trying try to fight the disease, but the parasite was simply feeding off them and multipliying - the causing hideous sores .

The doctor found a swollen lymph node on side of Mr Spencer's neck, indicating the infection was spreading, and was in danger of travelling to his nose and eyes - and could even kill him .



The disfiguring wound grew until it covered his cheek. Miss Pack said: 'It was oozing constantly - it affected every part of his life. He couldn't eat, he couldn't breathe without pain, it was really really scary.'



Weeping sores: The Oregon traveller tried antibiotics to no avail, and even his throat began to close up as lesions appeared on his back

Mr Spencer said: 'I was worried whether my face was ever going to look the same. There was nothing I could do; I was essentially helpless waiting for the treatment to begin.'

Soon afterwards, during a game of football, he got hit in the face and the wound started oozing again.



When Miss Pack saw that t wo lesions had spring up on his back, she knew the infection 'had become systemic'.



'It was a really hard time,' she said.

Mr Spencer feared he would lose the ability to speak as well. 'This parasite had taken my dreams and stomped on them,' he said.



Finally, after a 21-day treatment , the parasite - which had been transmitted into his skin by a tiny sandfly bite on the Amazon - finally went away, but Mr Spencer still bears a scar.

'Scar or no scar he's still the most handsome man i know,' said Miss Pack.