SpunkyRachel: 'I have finally begun to flourish'
May 11th, 2010 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
It’s been almost a year since we last checked in on Rachel Corley-Gutierrez, better known by her YouTube moniker, SpunkyRachel. The young woman was diagnosed with the rare but life threatening allergic reaction to medication known as Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) just two weeks after taking ibuprofen for a headache. Her YouTube video diaries track her long and painful road to recovery. Her latest update is encouraging.
“Seemed like a lifetime ago,” she comments on her video titled “Getting on, moving on.” Photos flash on the screen of a lovely woman with flowing dark hair. “A few days before Stevens Johnson Syndrome turned my world around,” she writes under a picture of herself, a vision of health. The following photos show the stark reality. SJS tore through her body, blistering her skin and internal organs, sending her to the hospital where she was placed in a drug-induced coma for six weeks. The fact that she survived is a miracle.
SJS is a rare reaction to medication. More than 2,000 drugs have been linked to SJS, most commonly ibuprofen, antibiotics, anti-viral drugs and anti-convulsants. The condition begins as a rash that blisters over causing the skin to peel off in sheets. The eyes and internal organs can also be affected, causing dangerous dehydration, serious problems with the eyes, and life threatening infections.
“Once I was a victim,” Rachel writes. “Then there came a time when I began to thrive.” There is no denying that Rachel has been through a long recovery. The scars still show on the patches of white on her dark skin, but her smile shines brighter. “And now,” she says, “I have finally begun to flourish.”