Aspiring Actress Contracts Rare Skin Disorder from Lamictal
By Courtney Coren
New York actress Josephine Ganner traveled to Colorado to participate in a documentary on mental illness and the treatment her brother was undergoing for his mental illness when she came down with a disease that nearly took her life.
Ganner also suffered from depression and was taking Lamictal, a drug prescribed to treat resistant depression and bipolar disorder. Her New York physician had recently increased her dose, and 10 days later she started to develop Stevens Johnson Syndrome, a potentially fatal disease, 7NEWS, the Denver, Colorado ABC News affiliate, reports.
“I was having a hard time breathing and was having internal pain,” she said. “Then, I started developing spots.”
She first went to an urgent care center in Boulder, Colorado where she was misdiagnosed with allergies and later Herpes, but her condition worsened as the spots started to blister.
Then, she went to a hospital in Boulder, where she was given the correct diagnosis of Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS), which turned out to be a Lamictal side effect.
SJS may appear in the form of facial swelling, tongue swelling, hives, and skin pain as well as a red or purple rash that spreads rapidly, within hours to days. Blisters will begin to develop on the skin and mucous membranes, especially in the mouth, nose, and eyes. It usually culminates in the shedding of the skin — which means that the top layer of the skin has died. It is incredibly painful and can make eating, urinating, and sleeping difficult. If blisters develop on the eye — it can cause blindness.
Stevens Johnson Syndrome is fatal in about 5 percent of patients who contract it. Lesions can develop on internal organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, or liver, causing inflammation on those organs. SJS can also cause sepsis, a condition in which the bacteria from the infection enters the bloodstream. It can take months to recover from and can leave lasting damage.
Ganner was later transferred to the University of Colorado Hospital where she was treated in the Burn Center and put into a drug-induced coma.
According to Ganner, the blisters spread inside and out of her entire body. She also developed blisters on her eyes. While the blisters on the skin recover without a problem, the blisters on the eyes leave scar tissue — leading to blindness. This is what happened to Ganner.
Thankfully, she was at the right hospital where Dr. Darren Gregory, who is a specialist in recovering the eyesight in patients who contract SJS, worked. He uses an amniotic membrane from a placenta to achieve this.
“It has a very potent anti-inflammatory effect,” Gregory told 7NEWS. “It allows damaged tissues to regenerate and heal without scar tissue.”
Ganner has still not fully recovered from her Lamictal SJS, but has been told by doctors and other SJS patients that she will.
The documentary that was supposed to feature her brother is now focusing on Ganner.
“This has given me a greater purpose because people don’t know about this disease,” Ganner said.
If you or someone you know has suffered from Stevens Johnson Syndrome as the result of taking Lamictal or another medication, legal options are available. Learn more and get a free consultation regarding a claim’s eligibility at the Stevens Johnson (SJS) & Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. Experienced legal professionals have access to medical experts to assess whether or not Lamictal played a role in your allergic reaction, so act now.
Updated April 18th, 2013
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One thought on Aspiring Actress Contracts Rare Skin Disorder from Lamictal
In 1999, I was prescribed Lamisil and Sporonax for a nail fungus and after ten days had the same allergic reaction and was diagnosed with SJS. Was in Intensive care for five days and in Hospital for fifteen days. Bad burn to the skin,and the same thing lost all the skin and hair, almost like a chemo treatment only worse. Took me two years to make a comeback.