SINGAPORE – Imagine having a piece of sandpaper running over your eyes every time you blink – and the average person blinks around 20 times a minute.
That was the reality for Singaporean housewife Fikriyah Mohamad Nor, 30.
She suffered from Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), a rare, serious disorder of the skin and mucous membranes which causes blisters in or on the eyes, mouth, nose and genitals.
In severe cases, the skin detaches and peels away, leaving raw, exposed areas.
If left unchecked, the condition often results in death, usually due to complications such as sepsis, severe fluid loss or organ failure.
SJS is usually triggered by a reaction to medication such as antibiotics, but for some patients, the cause is unknown – as in the case of Fikriyah.
The mother of five developed a fever in 2018 which turned serious quickly. She developed blisters all over her body, on the cornea and conjunctiva of her eyes, and inside her mouth.
“At the emergency department, I could not speak or move because of the blisters and the pain. I was warded for two weeks before I was sent home with pain medication and antibiotics… The blisters eventually went away, except those in my eyes,” she told The Straits Times.
She was unable to blink as doing so would cause the dried-out margins of her eyelids to scrape against the eyes. The lid margins are the thin edges of the upper and lower eyelids where the skin meets the eye.
Her eyes became extremely dry and she could not open them.
Fikriyah was later referred to the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), where she was prescribed eye drops.
It was only seven years later that she was referred to senior consultant Ong Hon Shing from the centre’s Cornea and External Eye Disease Department. She found out that the delicate tissue of her inner eyelids had turned into tougher skin.
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