Woman Almost Loses Feet As They Blister From Common Item Most People Have

A New Orleans woman spoke out to warn others after experiencing a severe allergic reaction to a new pair of sandals.

Jessica Jones first noticed that something was wrong when she found a red splotch on her ankle in February, and soon began experiencing a tightness in the area. She first thought it was a spider bite, but a doctor told her it was cellulitis. She was prescribed antibiotics and sent home — but the following day, things began to get much worse.

Blisters started forming on the woman’s ankle, and she experienced agonizing pain.

“It really scared me because I’m thinking, what is going on?” Jones told WVUE. She went to a Picayune, Mississippi, emergency room where she was diagnosed with a rare skin condition called bullous pemphigoid, then prescribed pain pills and steroid cream. Within a few days, however, the blisters were much bigger and Jones was hardly able to walk.

“It was just the most miserable pain I ever felt in my life,” she said. “And all I would do is just sit there and cry.”

After two more hospital visits and two more diagnoses, no progress was made.

“They’re telling me this is lupus, bullous impetigus, and I said, this is getting worse. I said, I’ve been on all these antibiotics, steroids, creams — nothing’s working,” she said. “And I said I can’t take it anymore, I’m done.”

She finally called for an ambulance two weeks after her first hospital visit, and was taken to a New Orleans hospital where doctors asked her if she’d recently worn any new shoes. She told them that she had, in fact, recently bought a new pair of leather sandals — just a week and a half before the reaction began.

“I noticed a couple of days after wearing them, [the tops of my feet were] getting sore, but I didn’t think anything of it. Shoes have always done that whenever I tighten the straps up on them,” she said. Doctors finally realized what was going on.

“The doctor said where the strap is located on the shoe is exactly where your burns are. She says this is looking more like a chemical burn from leather more than bullous impetigus or lupus,” Jones said. The diagnosis was contact dermatitis, a severe allergic reaction.

“The severity of it is a bit unusual, but the actual disorder is not unusual at all,” said Dr. Robert Benson, a board certified dermatologist. He looked at her medical records. “It says suspected contact dermatitis due to new sandals. She essentially had, at the end of the day, second-degree burns.”

Jones was ultimately able to walk again and the pain subsided. In the end, she decided to speak out to warn others of the debilitating reaction.

“I don’t wish this on anybody. This was miserable,” she said. “It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”

Many readers expressed shock over the woman’s ordeal.

“This would be really scary. Thank goodness she is not one of those that wants to sue everyone. I’m glad everything turned out good for her. I would have never thought of new shoes to cause such horror but your system sometimes does not agree with everything you do, wear or what you ingest,” one Mad World News reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.

“She needs to inform all the doctors and others she went to for help so they can be better informed for someone else,” another wrote.

“I had a similar experience. I won’t buy shoes or slippers made in China,” another added.

Sources: WVUE, Mad World News/Facebook / Photo credit: Pixabay, WVUE, Drew Stephens/Flickr