A 19-year-old Australian girl almost died from a Lamictal Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) reaction on her birthday after taking her newly prescribed anti-seizure medication.

Danika H. of New South Wales, Australia, was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was only 18 years old, a year prior to her alleged May 2014 Lamictal SJS reaction. Just before she turned 19, Danika was prescribed Lamictal and Keppra, two anti-seizure medications that have been reported to cause SJS side effects in children and adults, the UK’s DailyMail.com reported.

Danika did not have an immediate reaction to the medication. However, in May 2014, on the day of her 19th birthday, Danika noticed that she was experiencing swelling in her eyes and lips. The swelling was soon followed by a small rash on her chest that quickly developed into a full body rash. Danika went to her local hospital, where she was misdiagnosed with herpes and sent home without further care.

During the next four days after her birthday, Danika’s Lamictal Stevens Johnson condition worsened and her mother was forced to take her to another hospital in New South Wales. After a few other misdiagnoses, Danika was finally correctly diagnosed with SJS and TEN (Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis). For a while, doctors doubted that this young Australian girl would survive this severe Lamictal skin reaction.

Danika was transferred to a hospital in Sydney, where she remained in treatment for close to a month. According to Lamictal SJS news reports, Danika developed SJS rashes and blisters on her entire body. Because of the SJS side effects, Danika’s mouth was fused shut and the top layer of her skin on her face, chest, back, and arms sloughed off, leaving more delicate skin layers exposed to infection and other SJS complications.

Additionally, the young woman struggled with breathing and had to be fed through a tube, since the Lamictal SJS reaction had burned her from the inside out, even causing her to vomit blood and skin.

Even though Danika is now stable and has survived her Lamictal SJS, she still suffers from SJS side effects even after hospitalization. Danika is now campaigning for more warning labels to appear on drug packaging in order to warn other would-be Lamictal victims.

Lamictal Stevens Johnson Syndrome Side Effects

Lamictal (or Lamotrigine) is a seizure and epilepsy treatment that is also approved to treat Lenoux-Gastaut Syndrome, a form of child-onset epilepsy. Since receiving FDA approval in 2004, Lamictal’s manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has successfully marketed their anti-seizure drug within the U.S. medical community.

However, according to Lamictal clinical trials, an estimated 10 percent of users of this seizure medication experienced a type of rash on their bodies, though not all were SJS rashes. Not all the Lamictal rashes were severe. However, in some patients the rashes were the first sign that they had developed Lamictal SJS or TEN.

Some symptoms and side effects of Lamictal Stevens Johnson Syndrome include:

• Painful blistering of the skin and mucous membrane involvement
• In many cases preceded with flu like symptoms and high fever
• As it evolves, the skin literally sloughs off

Ocular involvement includes severe conjunctivitis, iritis, palpebral edema, conjunctival and corneal blisters and erosions, and corneal perforation.

Because of the pain young children and young adults often undergo from Lamictal SJS and TEN, many parents may decide to file a Lamictal SJS lawsuit or join a Steven Johnson Syndrome class action lawsuit.