A 21 year-old was left unable to walk, talk and see after a patch of ‘sunburn’ turned out to be a deadly infection she’d contracted from a mosquito bite.
Lucy Slawson, from Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, assumed a swollen rash that had appeared while holidaying in Turkey was the result of spending too much time in the sun, and the odd bug bite.
However, minutes after she landed back in the UK, the international business management student noticed the angry rash had tripled in size.
On the drive home from the airport, Ms Slawson noticed her vision beginning to fail.
Still, she assumed this was the result of exhaustion after catching a 5am flight home, and pulled into a hotel in Sheffield to get some rest.
Four hours later she awoke to find that the rash on her arms and legs was now burning and terrifyingly, her legs had turned blue.
She went to a nearby pharmacy where staff urged her to call 999 immediately, and she was quickly rushed to hospital.
Shortly after arriving, Ms Slawson’s condition deteriorated rapidly and she slipped into a semi-comatose state for a week.
Lucy Slawson, from Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, had never been abroad and naturally assumed a rash and some swelling she experienced in Turkey were a simple result of a mosquito bite, too much sun and indulgent holiday dining
When she awoke, she found she had lost her ability to move and communicate, as well as control her bladder.
She had to spend the next month in hospital, relearning how to talk and walk.
Doctors eventually diagnosed Ms Slawson with chronic fatigue syndrome and functional neurological disorder, which medics believe were triggered by an infection carried by the mosquito that bit her.
‘I remember feeling so heavy and exhausted and I was getting annoyed because the doctors wouldn’t let me out of bed because I couldn’t walk or use my arms or anything,’ she said.
‘Their (the doctor’s) best guess was that it was because of a bug bite.’
Ms Slawson also learned that she was suffering from a bacterial infection called Strep A — which medics suspected may have struck before the mosquito bite.
Doctors eventually diagnosed Ms Slawson with chronic fatigue syndrome and functional neurological disorder, with medics believing the mosquito bite, combined with weakness from prior infection, were to blame
She had to spend the next month in hospital, relearning how to talk and to walk with a frame.
‘I thought “damn I’ve gained so much weight on this holiday,’ said Ms Slawson.
‘It’s comical because if I was to look back now the swelling alone would have been a red flag.’
In hospital, she said her condition initially got ‘worse and worse and worse’ to the point where her legs began to turn blue.
‘My body basically shut down because it didn’t know how to fight the infection,’ she said.
Now in recovery, Ms Slawson is still living with the impact of her life-changing ordeal.
She experiences occasional seizures and still struggles to walk long distances.
Her condition meant she was forced to surrender her driving licence and to stop work.
‘My life has never ever been the same,’ she said.
Now in recovery, Ms Slawson is still living with the impact of her life-changing ordeal
She experiences occasional seizures and still struggles to walk long distances
However, she said she had recently been seeing some signs of a recovery recently re-taking up pole dancing
‘I’m sick of not being able to go up and down stairs and do all these simple things that everyone else can do.
‘I lost my driving licence which was the biggest gut-wrenching thing ever because I had put myself through my driving lessons and bought my own car.’
However, she said she had recently experienced some signs of recovery.
‘I’ve spent the last year-and-a-half building up my walking so now I can walk around the block,’ she said.
‘I previously did pole dancing before I got ill and I recently started that again.’
Chronic fatigue syndrome, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, is a poorly understood and incurable condition that causes a wide range of symptoms including extreme tiredness.
What causes it to develop is unknown, though some experts suspect it can be triggered following an infection.
Functional neurological disorder meanwhile is a problem with how the brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body, leading to limb weakness and seizures.
What triggers this miscommunication is unknown, but cases are known to occur after physical injury, an infection, panic attack or migraine.
How long patients suffer from functional neurological disorder can vary.
Some experience symptoms for a short period of time while others will have issues for years.
