I felt as if I’d been burned in an oven

-Gazette Live, UK

01/11/2008 - A PENSIONER recovering from cancer surgery was left with horrifically blistered skin after a catastrophic reaction to an antibiotic.

Brenda Murphy’s family believed she would not be strong enough to survive.

She says 70% of her body was covered with the blisters - “some the size of teacups”.

“The nurses lifted me up off the sheets and the skin literally fell off my back,” said Brenda, 70.

“Some of the blisters on my legs were so big the nurses had to cut them off. I felt as if I’d been burned in an oven.”

She said a heart attack suffered in hospital left her with angina.

Recovering at home in Hollowfield, Coulby Newham, Brenda says the ordeal has left her depressed and nursing scars.

It has also delayed vital chemotherapy planned after surgery at James Cook University Hospital to remove a cancerous ovarian cyst.

Now husband Peter is calling for a ban on trimethoprim, which he claims caused the rare blisters of Stevens Johnson Syndrome, until there is a test to show who will react to it.

“Brenda was wearing a red wrist band to show she was allergic to penicillin, but had no idea she would react to this antibiotic,” he said.

“There were times when I came home in tears believing she wouldn’t survive.

“The doctor told me he was really sorry, but said there was no way of knowing it would cause this problem.”

Brenda, who was one of the world’s tiniest survivors when she was born weighing just 24oz in 1937, said the first signs of a rash appeared within a couple of hours.

“The nurses were wonderful,” said Brenda, who has been married to Peter for 47 years.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust’s principal pharmacist, Adrienne Stark, said: “This is a rare occurrence. We always ask patients if they have any allergies and avoid giving them a particular drug if they have problems and take every precaution.”