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Medication Causes Man to Burn from Inside-Out



Jonathan Laird, a 38-year-old Indiana man, was forced to have his eyes sewn shut and his body covered in pigskin as he burned from the inside out because of a rare reaction to a medication.



Three years ago, Laird had conjunctivitis and flaking skin, but when he developed blisters in his mouth and throat, he drove himself to the hospital. “My eyes started to feel like they had little pieces of glass in them. It was very uncomfortable and I was scared to touch them or rub them because it literally felt like I was going to cut my eyes,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Is this Stevens-Johnson Syndrome?’ I can’t imagine I would actually get this, but is this what this is?”



Laird’s suspicions were confirmed and a doctor ordered him to discontinue Lamictal (Lamotrigine), a drug he was taking for depression. The medication is an anti-epileptic and can be used to treat seizures as well as bipolar disorder. Patients occasionally develop skin rashes, hives, blistering and peeling, or sores in or around the mouth and eyes, and if they do, they are instructed to seek emergency medical attention.



For Laird, the symptoms grew worse with as many as 50 sores appearing in his mouth and a rash spreading across his back and chest. He returned to the hospital the following day and was transferred to Harbour View Medical Center in Seattle. “When you have Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) you basically burn from the inside out,” he explained. “It starts as a rash and then the rash erupts into blisters.”



Patients diagnosed with SJS are usually admitted to a hospital’s burn unit. While many cases are caused by an allergic reaction to medications, others may be the result of an infection or vaccinations. Approximately 10 percent of cases result in death, while those who survive may develop pneumonia, sepsis, shock or multiple organ failure, according to the Cleveland Clinic. As Laird healed, his body was covered in wraps and he couldn’t move. “They stitched my eyes shut to protect my vision. They bound my hands together so I couldn’t rip the tube out that was down my throat,” he said.



He spent almost two weeks in ICU before he was returned to the burn unit and it took several more weeks before he was able to see, talk or eat. He attempted to communicate with his parents by writing on paper. “I said something like, ‘Am I going to die?’ because I didn’t know and that was really hard for them to read,” he remembered. “I just looked horrible. I looked like a plane crash.”



Source: Alexandria Hein, Fox News, January 14, 2020.