A New Zealand woman, Charlotte Gilmour, is raising awareness after experiencing a rare and severe reaction to medication prescribed for depression. Ms Gilmour, 23, shared her ordeal, describing it as "terrifying" and claiming the medication "burned me from inside out."
Local news outlet Stuff reported that Ms Gilmour developed Steven-Johnson syndrome (SJS), a rare condition causing painful blisters on the skin, mouth, and oesophagus. SJS typically begins with flu-like symptoms followed by a blistering rash and can be fatal in 10% of cases, according to the Mayo Clinic cited by the New York Post.
Doctors believe Ms Gilmour's reaction stemmed from lamotrigine, an antiepileptic drug also used for depression, known to have SJS as a rare side effect. Gilmour reported suffering from a chest infection for weeks before waking up with a painful rash. It's unclear if SJS caused the chest infection.
"I looked in the mirror, and I just burst into tears. I think I subconsciously knew it was something quite serious," she told Stuff. She rushed to the hospital where Filipino nurses recognised her condition but the medical staff was quite unsure of it. It was scary, I guess, hearing ... 'OK, no one really knows a lot about this'," she added.
"The scariest part about it is that it burned me from the inside out. So all the burns on the outside were because my insides were so burned that it started to manifest on the outside of my skin."
The reaction wasn't limited to her skin and mouth; it also caused painful blisters throughout her digestive system. This made it impossible for her to eat normally, so doctors inserted a feeding tube to provide her with essential nutrients. Unfortunately, even with steroid treatment, her condition didn't improve.
"So they stopped them ... and then it just got worse and worse until there was one night it got so bad I pretty much lost my vision," she shared.
The 23-year-old shared that she was put back on steroids which "definitely helped in the end," she said.
Following a month-long hospitalization, she's made significant progress, but some after-effects persist.
"I still get blisters pop up in my eyes and the rash flares up, always in the same place where the worst burn was," she said.
