Steven Johnson Syndrome (SJS) is a skin disease that everybody has been taking about lately. Initially, it was believed to affect mainly older people and to be caused by a drug reaction. However, it has been recently discovered that there are also children among its victims.
Julie Farrell was an 11 month-old baby, when she got the disease. One morning, her parents noticed that she had a swollen eye. The baby girl was epileptic, reason why she was put under Phenobarbital two weeks before. Phenobarbitals are barbiturates used as a drug for epileptic patients due to its hypnotic, sedative and anticonvulsant properties. The baby was left in her house under the care of her grandmother, and by the time her parents arrived from work, Julie's eye had swollen completely shut. Her parents were angry and took her immediately to the doctor. On their way there, her mom noticed Julie had small blisters on her lips as well as red spots all over her body. She was also running a high fever.
The doctor was not really sure to define what was really wrong with Julie. During the appointment, the pediatrician noticed the baby had developed pus-filled blisters on her ear drum. He diagnosed chicken pox with ear infection. He advised Julie's parents to keep on giving her Phenobarbital and prescribed an antibiotic to treat the chicken pox. The following day, Julie had blisters in all the cavities of her body. Her eyes were swollen shut and the red spots had started to ulcerate. Due to the numerous blisters on her mouth, she was not able to swallow. Her parents took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with a severe case of chicken pox, again!
The baby got worse and her face turned unrecognizable. Fortunately, an experienced nurse told the doctor that Julie did not have chicken pox, but had Steven Johnson Syndrome instead. Initially, the doctor did not believe the nurse and looked for a second opinion. Another doctor agreed with the nurse and ordered an immediate removal of the Phenobarbitals. Then, he called the Burn Unit, an infectious disease specialist and an ophthalmologist.
Three weeks later, Julie was still in the hospital. Her lungs had to be constantly suctioned to remove fluids and mucous. She was completely wrapped in bandages to cover the ulcerations and the blisters that were still there. The pain was so incredible, that they put her on morphine. The skin under her eyelids peeled off completely, reason why the doctors pried her blistered eyes with glass rods. It resulted in blood everywhere and the baby was in complete agony.
Julie finally survived all the treatments, but not without permanent damages: she is blind in one eye and has limited vision in the other. She must wear sunglasses and she ended up with noticeable scars on her back and legs. Even though SJS has been extensively studied, there are still areas unknown for scientists. Steven Johnson Syndrome is quite difficult to identify in children. This situation may lead to mal practice cases and personal injuries lawsuits. Law represents a great factor of pressure on demanding more accuracy on the part of the medical specialists. Therefore, we all must be careful and ready to detect any sort of medical flaw that attempts to put at risk of death one of our dear ones' lives. Do not be afraid to look for justice and demand high quality medical services.