Girl left covered in burns and blisters after suffering allergic reaction

A LITTLE girl suffered “burns” to 65 per cent of her body and lost her memory after suffering a horrific allergic reaction to painkillers.

Alexa Juckiewicz-Caspell, aged ten, is learning to walk and eat on her own again after being diagnosed with Steven Johnson syndrome, a severe reaction which caused the layers of her skin to fall off as the cells died.

The reaction occurred after taking a prescription to relieve her symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition that affects the trigeminal nerve in the face.

After calming down the pains and twitches in her face, the painkillers triggered a rash appearing all over her body.

Her condition gradually worsened until doctors weren’t sure she was going to survive.

Alexa spent six weeks in the hospital and was put in a medically induced coma after the disease caused her eyes and mouth to become “glued” shut.

She began her first stages of recovery in April 2017, waking up with no memory of the past and having to relearn how to do some of the simplest tasks including talking and breathing.

More than a year after leaving the hospital, Alexa is still struggling with effects of the illness.

She is working on adapting to being hearing-impaired, having to take her “safe” medications and continues to have trouble walking and swallowing food.

Her mum Kazmira, 36, said: “None of the doctors even knew what it was, so I had to email photos to other hospitals in order to get a diagnosis.

“She had to be kept in the burn unit as they scrubbed her body of the burned skin, shaved her head and wrapped her in foil. It took them two weeks to get her eyes open.

“I had no idea what Steven Johnson syndrome was and when she was first put in a coma, the doctor told me it was unlikely that she would survive the night. I was terrified.

“There were blisters and burns on every part of her body you could imagine.

“Alexa learned to breath, walk, talk and eat all over again. She amazed everyone around her with how determined she was, including the doctors.

“She’s still choking on a lot of her foods and sometimes her mouth even starts erupting in blisters again after a meal.”

Alexa, aged eight at the time, started experiencing symptoms of trigeminal neuralgia in January 2017, but she was quickly diagnosed and prescribed the pain killer.

But the medication caused allergic reactions, with the first symptom being blisters on random parts of her body.

“She had extreme burning pain behind her ear, across her face and all the way down her neck. She explained that it felt like someone was cutting her face,” Kazmira said.

“She started getting rashes on her skin and we had no idea what was wrong.”

On a particular day, when an even worse rash erupted on Alexa’s lips, her mum brought her to the hospital, where an EpiPen caused the reactions to worsen.

It was then that they realised it was something more than a regular allergy.

“One of the most difficult parts of dealing with this was that the doctors didn’t even know what she had. One of them even thought it was herpes,” Kazmira added.

“There needs to be much more awareness about this condition. If more doctors become familiar with it, they can prevent it.”

While Alexa is back in school, she still has to miss a lot of days to attend doctors’ appointments.

Kazmira is hoping her daughter can make more progress in her recovery before starting secondary school.

“The school does everything they can to help her. It’s very difficult for her to do the things she used to,” she said.

“She still gets weak, so it can be difficult for her to write or participate in physical activities with the other kids.

“I get angry at myself and the hospital sometimes, but then I stop myself because I’m lucky that she’s still here.

“A boy came into the hospital with the same condition right after Alexa and the doctors knew exactly what to do.”