16 Feb 2012
By: NG WAN CHING
When Mr FM saw his general practitioner for pain in his ankle joint in 2007, he was diagnosed with gout and prescribed allopurinol, a drug which blocks the excessive production of uric acid in the body that causes gout.
He was told to take one pill a day indefinitely.
Little did he know this would lead to the worst medical experience of his life, one that nearly killed him.
The 37-year-old, who is in the IT field, said: “I took the pill every day. Then, two weeks in, I started feeling unwell.”
He developed a rapid heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute.
Then, in rapid succession, he came down with a fever, developed a few blisters in his mouth and had severe “sore eyes”.
He went to the accident and emergency department at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), where doctors did an electrocardiogram because of his rapid heart rate.
“They did not detect anything wrong with my heart,” said Mr FM, who is single.
But by then, he had blisters all over his face and chest.
“I discovered them when I went to the hospital toilet and looked in the mirror,” he said.
He was admitted to the hospital but much worse was to come.
When he woke up the next morning, his sight was nearly gone.
A specialist diagnosed his symptoms as an allergy to allopurinol.
“They transferred me to the hospital’s Burns Unit because, by that time, blisters not only covered my face and chest, but also my legs. They covered 70 per cent of my body,” he said.
He was given morphine, but though it controlled the pain, he hated the way it made him feel.
“It was like being in darkness and limbo. I wanted to get off it,” he said.
So against his doctors’ advice, he insisted on being taken off morphine after seven days.
His condition for the next couple of weeks was critical.
“Even eating a banana was sheer agony,” he said. “By then, my entire mouth was covered in blisters. It was as though I was being burnt from the inside out.”
To make matters worse, the vision in his right eye was completely blurred and he could see only partially through his left eye.
Because Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) attacks the mucosal membranes, the eyes are usually affected, said Dr Bernard Thong, head and senior consultant at the department of rheumatology allergy and immunology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
It can be severe and blinding.
“Appropriate intervention during the acute stage may prevent late complications in the eye, such as severe dry eyes,” he said.
Mr FM still has vivid memories of those dreadful weeks. Sleep was difficult, eating was impossible and time passed slowly. He lost almost 10 kg.
It was very hard on his family, especially his mother, who visited him every day.
“They were so worried for me. It was something that came out of the blue,” he said.
It was only after he had recovered that doctors told him how serious it had been.
“They told me it was touch and go,” he said.
Dr Lee Haur Yueh, an associate consultant at SGH, who was on his medical team, said he stood a 30 per cent chance of dying.
Said Dr Lee: “The factors in his favour were his young age and the fact that he did not have any other conditions such as kidney problems or cancer.
“In addition, he received excellent nursing and coordinated care in the Burns Unit, which helped in the healing of his extensive wounds.”
Mr FM made a complete recovery, but he has never forgotten the traumatic experience.
After his recovery, he joined an international SJS support group to find out more about the condition and read about how it had affected others.
He said: “After I read all the stories, I realised I was one of the very lucky ones. My skin does not show any signs of being ‘burnt’ and my eyesight is back to normal.”
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