A Rhode Island has been suffering from an extremely rare fungus-caused condition that literally causes black mold to grow in his brain.
Tyson Bottenus, a 35-year-old man from Rhode Island is only one of only 120 documented cases of infections with Cladophialophora bantiana, an exotic fungus known as “black mold”, since 1911. In his case, the fungus made its home in the brain, causing all sorts of issues that Bottenus has been dealing with ever since symptoms began, about four years ago. Tyson is lucky to be alive, as black mold kills over 70% of its hosts, and he is doing everything possible to fight and hopefully get it out of his brain, but it’s a tough battle, one that even modern medicine is struggling with.
Tyson’s ordeal began 4 years ago, when he and his fiancée, Liza, decided to celebrate their engagement by going cycling together in Costa Rica. Everything was well and good until the third day of their vacation when Tyson accidentally fell off his bike and scraped his left elbow. It wasn’t the most serious injury, so he just rinsed and bandaged the wound as best as he could, and had it looked at by a nurse early the next morning.
