Fighting a Rare Disease
- A few years ago, fitness influencer Bea Amma, 26, was recruited on Instagram to try supplement injections at a California med spa. She has been fighting a rare, flesh-eating bacteria ever since.
- The health advocate is calling for proper regulation in what she says is the “Wild West” of the cosmetic industry, wanting people to be more careful about what they’re putting in their bodies and where they’re having these treatments.
- Symptoms of Mycobacterium, the type of bacteria that infected Amma, may include fever, fatigue, a cough producing blood or sputum, weight loss and night sweats, open sores, red rashes, or boils.
Amma sat down with Mikhail Varshavski, DO, known as “Dr. Mike” on his podcast The Checkup, to discuss the harrowing journey and what she’s endured.
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“So many days on independent treatment I was—finding the will to live was very difficult for me,” she said. “Those are the things that like I don’t talk super openly about because I don’t want to focus on that.”
“I want to focus on how can I love my body more and how can I finally like beat this once and for all,” added Amma, who was recently featured on Botched, a show on E! featuring real-life nightmares from treatments.
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The health advocate is calling for proper regulation in what she says is the “Wild West” of the cosmetic industry, and wanting people to be more careful about putting things in their bodies, including the growing trend of getting an IV drip after overindulging in drinking and/or feeling dehydrated.
“They even have them in gyms now. These IV places, they’re not regulated. It’s a dangerous thing.”
From ‘Self-Improvement’ to Suffering
Amma went to go get her B12 injection in April of 2021. She was 23 at the time and sold on improving her energy and appearance. She was offered an “amazing compound of B12 and deoxycholic acid. Well, it was essentially Kybella, which is a fat-dissolver, and that you also get the positive benefits of like vitamin B12 injections.”
She said everything looked “legit” and “clean” at the facility, and after recently moving to Los Angeles, she was “being too hard on herself” to get a career going.
“As somebody who is kind of already on the tired side, wanting to be this hustler and live a fast-paced life, taking things to ‘improve energy’ or improve metabolism, it was attractive to me.”
Feeling Beautiful Isn’t About Beauty
Within 24 hours of the injections, she developed a fever and chills, and “really severe brain fog.”
“I was shaking. I felt like I was going to pass out. I just started feeling really weird,” Amma said. “What we believe is that the vials that they were using were actually contaminated. There was so much Mycobacterium infection that was injected into me that there’s no way that it could have been the materials, at some point it would have worn off.
Basically, her doctors found the Mycobacterium inside her whole body and right where she had the injections. She developed nodules and open tissue where she got the infections. “It was like fire throughout my body, it was absolutely excruciating.”
When she confronted the med spa, Amma said they ultimately cussed her out, accused her of faking her disease, and told her “good luck suing us.” They allegedly offered her the $800 back if she signed paperwork saying she wouldn’t sue them.
She didn’t sign the papers, but has had a hard time doing anything legally due to the fact that the spa did not have insurance.
“No one wanted to take my case.”
Amma’s pure focus for the first year was to simply survive.
Emotional Pain and Isolation
As the infection took over and Amma developed open wounds all over her body, she finally checked into the hospital and was injected with morphine. That’s when her medical team determined it was Mycobacterium. She was in the hospital for three months as her care team tried every method possible to treat her, while her body was having a severe immune response.
Mental Health —Understanding the Three Wellsprings of Vitality
“The emotional pain was isolating,” she said of the shame, as many of her friends and family shunned her. To help comfort her, one of her nurses left her an art set.
“Art really helped me put my pain and suffering into something.”
Healing & Embracing Her Scars
As Amma began to heal, she eventually did laser treatments to diminish the purple and brown legions, which ultimately helped her focus on loving herself more — and her scars. Amma said that being on the show Botched also helped with her “acceptance.”
“Your skin without your scars would be like the sky without the stars ✨? ,” she wrote last week on Instagram.
“If you told the girl with hundreds of open flesh wounds that she would grow to one day love and appreciate her skin, she wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are. ❤️ so thankful for all the kind comments and love. I wish I could put into words how I really feel. ?? ?.”
She would also take “breaks” from the constant reminders of her scars by using fake tattoos on her body to have a little fun, distract her, and lighten her mood.
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Amma said she went off antibiotics in January of 2023, and though it’s still a continuous healing struggle, she is trying to focus on her improvements and the positive things she can control.
“Be thankful for what you can do today, be thankful for how you can treat your body, that’s a huge part of my message.”
What Is Mycobacterium?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “the name Mycobacterium, which means fungus-bacterium, was introduced in 1896.”
There are many types of this bacteria. Some types of Mycobacteria can cause tuberculosis, which is a bacterial lung infection, and the skin disease leprosy.
Mycobacterium can be found in hot tubs and swimming pools, ground water, drinking water, and soil.
The EPA states that “M. marinum is the species of Microbacterium most commonly associated with skin infections,” with the incubation period “ranging from two weeks to several months.”
Symptoms of a Mycobacterium Infection
Symptoms of Mycobacterium, according to NYU Langone Health, may include fever, fatigue, a cough producing blood or sputum, weight loss and night sweats. Skin symptoms may include open sores, visible ulcerations, red rashes or boils. Lesions or ulcerations oozing pus may indicate infected soft tissue.
It is crucial to go to the emergency room immediately if you are having any of the more severe symptoms mentioned above.
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