Khaliah Shaw is just starting to re-grow her skin.
The 24-year-old grad student lost 85-90 percent of her skin after she suffered from a rare disorder, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, that can occur after an allergic reaction to medication.
She was on anti-seizure medication Lamotrigine as part of a drug cocktail she was taking to combat bipolar disorder.
Follow Khaliah Shaw’s recovery here
Early on, Shaw began experiencing flu-like symptoms, but that gave way to blisters that covered her whole body, from her eyes right down to the soles of her feet. She lost all her hair and her fingernails, and doctors at Grady Memorial Hospital’s burn unit in Atlanta put her into a coma for five weeks.
Watch a full report on what caused Khaliah Shaw’s allergic reaction below:
Los Angeles News | FOX 11 LA KTTV
When she came out of the coma, she could hardly see … and when she finally regained her sight, she was shocked by her own, disfigured body.
“It was a shock to see that, especially when I’d went to sleep, all my hair had come off,” she said.
Shaw is slowly re-growing her own skin, and she can now see with sunglasses that help to block the painful light, though she is still a long way away from the active young student she once was.
Although she would like to resume her studies in public health at Georgia College and State University, she would settle for just one thing: “I would love to have my vision back.”