Graphic photos: Meet Danika Heron whose skin was ‘burnt from the inside out’ after reaction to epilepsy medication

        Danika Heron, from Sydney, Australia, was diagnosed with epilepsy at 18Just before her 19th birthday she was given two new medications. Skin reaction is a rare but known side effect of drugs Lamictal and Keppra .On her birthday in May, Miss Heron noticed she had a rash and swollen lips. Doctors misdiagnosed the rash as herpes, measles and chicken pox. Her symptoms got progressively worse and she was rushed to hospital. There she was diagnosed with life-threatening Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Syndrome (TENS).These conditions cause the skin and organs to burn and peel. There is no cure, patients are given fluid and pain relief like burns victims, Miss Heron spent just under a month in hospital but beat the disease. Now says despite having dry eyes and scars she is ‘grateful to be alive’is now campaigning for warning labels warning to be put on drug packets.

          A teenage girl almost died on her birthday after suffering a one in a million toxic reaction to her epilepsy medication. Danika Heron’s skin began to burn from the inside out, after the new epilepsy medicine she was prescribed triggered an extremely rare illness. Over a period of four days, Miss Heron’s symptoms got progressively worse and her mother, Carmen Heron, 43 took her to another hospital in New South Wales. Although rare, SJS and TENS have been reported as side effects of Lamictal and Keppra, the two epilepsy drugs Miss Heron was taking. It came to a point when I thought I was losing her, I was begging her to fight it, willing her to pull though.’ Miss Heron spent almost a month in hospital as her entire body blistered, her mouth fused shut and she lost the top layer of her skin on her face, chest, back and arms.‘After that day, it was like everything happened in slow motion, we didn’t know if she would make it.’Miss Heron’s biopsy came back diagnosing her with TENS. Her mother said:

          ‘They say one in a million get SJS and it’s even more rare for TENS, one in three can die and re-occurrence is at about 40 per cent.’There is no known cure for SJS or TENS; once it strikes there is no way to stop it, so Miss Heron was forced to fight for her life as the condition ran its course.‘I think there needs to more done to raise awareness of SJS and TENS, there needs to be more research into the condition and more training in hospitals as it’s so rare it isn’t easy to diagnose.Read the full article right now: Click to read