Life
Woman Loses 5 Toes After Visit To Fish Spa
These types of spas are popular in certain parts of the world and she wants to warn others.
Jessica Adler
10.01.18

If you’re heading to Thailand for a relaxing getaway and a trip to the fish spa is on your itinerary, you might want to reconsider.

Fish spas, or fish pedicures, have increased in popularity over the last several years, despite having been banned in multiple states due to health and animal welfare concerns.

In Thailand, however, business is still booming, and some people are losing body parts as a result.

Such is the case with one unlucky traveler, who is still paying the price for her fish-pedi over five years later.

Instagram/@terrifically_toeless
Source:
Instagram/@terrifically_toeless

It all started with a shard of broken glass.

In 2006, Victoria Curthoy of Perth, Australia was only 17 at the time when she cut open her big toe on a piece of glass.

Victoria was born without feeling in her foot, and it took her a while before she noticed anything was wrong with her toe.

Unfortunately, in that time she had developed a bone-infection that resulted in doctors having to amputate the top half of her big toe.

Flickr/Kullez
Source:
Flickr/Kullez

After undergoing a partial amputation of her large toe, Victoria seemed to be fine and well.

Fast-forward four years later, and the young adventurer took her first trip to Thailand in 2010 when fish spas were just exploding in the pop-culture scene.

Essentially, a fish-pedicure consists of soaking your feet and lower legs in a tank full of Garra rufa fish.

Also known as the “doctor fish”, Garra rufa are small freshwater fish originating from the Middle East, and they eat any dead skin they find on your feet and legs, making them super useful in pedicures.

Wikimedia Commons/Dances
Source:
Wikimedia Commons/Dances

Unfortunately, useful as this dead-flesh-eating ability is, current practices within the fish spas aren’t hygienically feasible.

Anyone who has owned fish before knows how frequently their aquarium must be cleaned, and that the fish must be removed before doing so.

In a fast-paced and busy spa, they are likely not cleaning as often as they should and the fish themselves are being reused on different people to nibble away at those dead bits, increasing the overall risk-factor for getting an infection.

Instagram/@terrifically_toeless
Source:
Instagram/@terrifically_toeless

No one knows the truth of these dangers better than Victoria herself.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Victoria recalls how unconcerned she was about the health-risks surrounding fish-pedicures.

“When I was in Thailand I decided to use a fish spa. I thought nothing of it as I’d watched the owner set up the system and it looked very clean, but how wrong I was.”

After she got back from her trip to Thailand, Victoria started getting frequent bouts of illness that her doctors couldn’t explain.

According to the young traveler, it took her doctors over a year to reach an accurate diagnosis; Osteomyelitis, a very rare but severe infection of the bones.

“I ended up getting another bone infection in my big toe and it took doctors over a year to figure out what type of bug I had. By the time they’d realised what it was, my entire toe bone had been eaten away and I’d been suffering from sickness the whole time.”

As it turns out, liquid from the fish spa had seeped into Victoria’s old surgical wound from her amputation in 2006.

Instagram/@terrifically_toeless
Source:
Instagram/@terrifically_toeless

Yet another year went by before doctors decided to amputate the rest of Victoria’s large toe in 2012, two years after she contracted the infection.

“They eventually decided to take the big toe off completely. I felt relieved I could go back to my life without being sick all the time.”

Unfortunately, the feeling of relief wouldn’t last.

After about a year had passed, Victoria discovered yet another infection, this time in her toe next to where her big toe had been.

She had that toe amputated as well and was back to normal again for about two years…until she got sick again.

“This time, the doctors took the second toe and left me with three toes. I was healthy for another two years, I thought I was very lucky to still have my foot and carried on with my life. But then I started to get sick again.”

Victoria would spend her mornings throwing up and suffering from a constant fever, even though medics couldn’t pinpoint an infection.

Instagram/@terrifically_toeless
Source:
Instagram/@terrifically_toeless

Finally, her podiatrist ordered for blood samples to be taken from Victoria to get to the bottom of things.

When the podiatrist received the results indeed, Victoria was suffering from a third bone-infection and was sustaining an extraordinarily high white blood cell count.

Victoria was then rushed into surgery to have her 3rd and 4th toes removed in November 2016.

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Instagram/@terrifically_toeless
Source:
Instagram/@terrifically_toeless

Down to just one toe left, all of the pressure from standing or walking started to have a painfully negative effect on Victoria’s pinky toe.

It wasn’t until later in the year that she realized something was amiss with her lonely little toe.

“Last year I noticed my small toe wasn’t looking very happy and there was some liquid on my sock, but I couldn’t see any cuts. After a few blood samples and more X-rays, they discovered another bone infection, so they finally took the last toe in November 2017.”

Now that Victoria has had all five toes amputated, she is getting used to being toe-less and helping other amputees to do the same.

Victoria regularly posts pictures and videos of her feet in everyday life, to rebuild her self-esteem and prove to others that there is nothing to be ashamed of.

You can follow her journey on her Instagram account @terrifically_toeless.

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