Robb fights back from rare infection

When former Owatonna wrestler and current Nebraska Cornhusker Peyton Robb began competition at the 2023 National Championship Tournament in Stillwater, Okla. last year, he envisioned his route to the top of the podium being the hardest battle of his weekend.

However, less than 48 hours into his tournament – which saw him reach the semifinal round – Robb’s goals shifted from reaching the podium to fighting for his life in the hospital.

“No matter what I tried, I just felt like I couldn’t get warmed up. I didn’t want to be the guy who loses and then injury defaults out of the tournament. I knew I had to be tough and fight through it. But, when my mom looked at my leg, she knew something was wrong. Call it mother’s intuition, but she knew I had to get it looked at,” said Robb.

After finishing his semifinal match, Robb began “vomiting and shaking uncontrollably” and was rushed immediately to an emergency room in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The intuition paid off, as doctors at the emergency room began working to figure out how to diagnose Robb’s injury.

Initially diagnosed with strep cellulitis – a bacterial infection – Robb traveled with the team back to Lincoln, Nebraska the following day.

However, he would not be out of the hospital long.

After being convinced to return to the emergency room by his girlfriend, Taylor Krone, Robb once again found himself back to square one, this time with a different diagnosis.

Doctors began to treat Robb for sepsis stemming from an infection, before one doctor noticed that the black spots on his leg may be signs of dying tissue.

“I remember one of the doctors coming in and he had some pretty choice words in his reaction to seeing my leg. They moved me into a stay room, put me on some fluids and a bunch of different people were coming in to check on me. That’s when I began to realize that this might be more serious than I thought to begin with,” said Robb.

The conclusion of Robb’s diagnosis: necrotizing fasciitis – a tissue-eating infection that can spread throughout the body.

According to Robb, doctors in the emergency room noted that there are typically only a couple hundred cases of necrotizing fasciitis reported in the U.S. each year and that the infection carries a 20% mortality rate even with applied treatments.

With time being of the essence, Robb’s doctors told the then-Nebraska junior that the only way to assess the infection was to go into surgery.

“The doctor came in and we had a conversation. I knew it was really serious at this point, so I told them, ‘Whatever has to be done, has to be done.’ Within an hour of meeting the orthopedic surgeon, I had gone into my first surgery. He pretty much said, ‘We’re going to go in and we don’t know what we’re going to have to remove until we get in there.’ At that point, I didn’t know what was going to happen, or if they were going to have to remove the bottom part of my leg or not,” said Robb.

With plenty of unknowns still hanging in the air, Robb chose not to panic during the tough situation.

“If I didn’t have the bottom half of my leg, it would have been a real shocker, but I looked at it optimistically, like, ‘I’m going to be fine.’ My mom and girlfriend actually told me that when I woke up after the surgery, I looked down, wiggled my foot and went back to sleep,” said Robb.

Six surgeries and one skin graft later, Robb could begin to see the road back to life as he knew it before the diagnosis.

Robb was finally out of the hospital 13 days after arriving back in Lincoln, although still required to stay in bed most days to not damage the staples and work done on his leg.

Now headed into the late stages of recovery, Robb’s focus shifted to getting back onto the mats.

Robb had been doing consistent upper-body training specialized for him by University of Nebraska Athletics training staff; however, the biggest battle was rehabbing his ankle to ensure proper strength and mobility for training.

“I worked on my ankle until it was actually stronger than my other one. Our training staff used a bunch of equipment and took really good care to make sure I was back where I needed to be. I’m really thankful for all they did to help me during the process,” said Robb.

Once cleared to hit the mats, Robb started a slow progression from light footwork and wrestling movements, to eventually drilling and being back to working out with his teammates.

“Lacing up my shoes for the first time again was a great feeling, but I wasn’t too focused on it. I’d known since I started rehabbing that this was the goal, so when I got to that point, I was just happy to be back around the team. It was tough to have to sit on the sidelines.”

After making it through the long off-season that saw Robb battle back from his injury from mid-March to early June, the now-senior began to prepare to reinsert himself as a top contender to win the NCAA 157-pound title.

In a story that seems only to play out so perfectly in sports, Robb’s first match back as a Cornhusker came against a familiar face: former Owatonna teammate Landen Johnson.

Robb went on to win by an 18-3 technical fall, securing bonus points for his team and realizing a new mentality on the mats.

“I think the easy answer is to say that I’m super grateful to step on the mat every time. But what I think I’ve noticed most this year is a sense of calm on the mats. Maybe it is because I’ve been through such a tough test, but I just feel calmer this year more than ever.”

Most recently, Robb made national headlines by winning the 157-pound bracket at the Cliff Kenn Las Vegas Invitational, also winning the tournament’s MVP for his performance.

While life has taken many twists and turns for Robb in the past year, his one goal remains the same.

“I want to climb on top of that podium and be a national champion,” said Robb about his 2023-24 ambitions.

Now in a prime position to do just that, the senior wrestler and recent college graduate had plenty to reflect on.

“I think the most important thing that I’ve learned from this past year is that you need people in your corner who are always willing to give you their honest opinion, no matter how hard it may be to do so. You need those people that are looking out for you. Those willing to say ‘no’ or say what needs to be done. My family and my girlfriend, they’re the reason I’m here. Who knows how much longer I had before things got too bad to fix if my mom or Taylor didn’t say something. I’m sure glad I had them there with me,” said Robb.