Woman ‘burned from the inside’ after rare reaction to medication: ‘It was scary’

A woman almost lost her life after suffering a serious reaction to medication, with the rare condition she developed causing blisters on her skin, mouth and esophagus. When she desperately asked for help, doctors admitted they knew very little about the disease and how to treat it.

Charlotte Gilmour, 23, had been battling a chest infection for several weeks when she woke up at home in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with a rash on her body. She reportedly burst into tears, knowing right away that it was “something pretty serious.”

“I looked in the mirror and burst into tears. I think I subconsciously knew it was something quite serious,” she told Stuff.

He was later diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a disorder that affects fewer than one in a million people worldwide. She is believed to have developed it from lamotrigine, a medication she was taking to treat depression. It is not known if the lung infection is related or if it is an unrelated illness.

Doctors don’t know how to treat blisters covering the patient’s body

Gilmour was taken to the hospital where some Filipino nurses reportedly recognized symptoms from cases in their home country, but medical staff didn’t have much information to help her.

“It was scary, I guess, to hear… ‘OK, no one really knows much about this,’” Gilmour said.

She needed a feeding tube due to severe blistering in her digestive tract, which also extended to the skin on her face, shoulders and back.

The first round of steroids doctors gave him made no difference, with medical staff reportedly saying “there was no point” in continuing as the medications did little to help treat or even alleviate its symptoms. However, Gilmour begged to have them returned to her when she began to lose her sight.

The medications finally started to make a difference. After 30 days in the hospital, Gilmour recovered and has since been discharged.

An allergic reaction causing rash or blisters on the skin is a known side effect of lamotrigine, a medicine given to treat depression and epilepsy patients in Australia. In most cases, skin irritations will disappear. However, patients are advised to stop treatment immediately and consult a doctor if they occur.

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