AKRON, Ohio — A Northeast Ohio woman just spent fifteen days in a burn unit despite the fact she'd never been burned. Instead, she experienced a rare, severe reaction to a medication she'd just been prescribed.
Kimberly Cannon feels thankful she went to the emergency room when she did, "my insides and my outsides were on fire," said Cannon.
Surrounded by her sisters, Cannon is happy to sit on her living room couch after spending 15 days in the Akron Children's Hospital Burn Unit.
"I keep looking at the pictures of me all wrapped up, and I'm like that was really me under there, like I really almost died," said Cannon.
Cannon said she had recently been prescribed Lamictal. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the drug can be used to treat epilepsy and mental health disorders.
"It was just some sort of reaction to the Lamictal. It's now on my allergy list; now they were like, just tell every provider you're allergic to Lamictal," said Cannon.
The reaction was a very rare, serious skin disorder called Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
"I'd never heard of it at all until I started the medication. They were like, this is a really, really rare thing that could happen. Even the nurse practitioner was like, 'I've been prescribing for 10 years, and I've never seen this, but it's a very rare thing that could happen,'" said Cannon.
The rash quickly covered her entire body and turned into painful blisters, even affecting her eyesight.
"I had these crazy lesions in my mouth. I would take a sip of water, and it would balloon up," said Cannon.
Unable to move or eat, sedated because of the pain, sisters Natalie and Delaney didn't leave her side,
"She was like full body wrapped, head to toe; it was heartbreaking; you couldn't even recognize her anymore. It was really hard to watch," said Natalie Cannon.
The painful ordeal is far from over; Cannon has a lengthy healing routine at home.
"These are all my eye drops; these are my nose drops. That's my mouthwash. It has a numbing agent that I have to swish around four times a day. This leg does look a little better but it's just healing a lot slower than other parts, like my arms have healed pretty quick," said Cannon.
It could take months for her to feel like herself again fully.
"If you see a weird rash, please go to the emergency room," said Cannon.
The Mayo Clinic lists several drugs that could cause Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. They include anti-gout medication, medication to treat seizures and mental illness, and even pain relievers like Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, and Aleve.
Cannon will be out of work for awhile, her family set up a GoFundMe to help her while she recovers. You can access that, here.
