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A British tourist visiting Portugal admitted she “learned her lesson” after a harrowing incident left her feeling very ill during her vacation. Shan used TikTok to caution her audience about her misfortune, revealing she “nearly died” on her first trip abroad.
“What could go wrong?” she started with irony. Through a collection of photographs, Shan proceeded to recount her story.
“When I arrived, the weather was beautiful – 23 degrees – nothing too extreme for my skin,” she recounted. Initially, her holiday started off well as she relaxed by the resort’s pool, unaware that her health was about to take a drastic turn.
“After about two hours, I went back inside to get a drink and some snacks and then noticed this,” she mentioned, showing a picture of her legs that had quickly turned pink. Over the next day, Shan explained that conditions “got progressively worse” as the pink shifted to red, sending her into a panic and making her “struggle to walk”.
She woke up the next morning to find her feet extremely swollen, making her “physically unable” to walk to the bathroom. “I somehow managed to crawl into the lift and get outside in the shade because I didn’t want to miss out on my holiday,” Shan added. “But by that time, everyone was astonished to see me.”
Even though she managed to finish her vacation without needing medical treatment there, Shan mentioned she “braved the flight home” while wearing compression socks. Upon arriving home, however, she immediately went to the hospital. “Once back in the UK, my legs swelled up again,” she shared, providing a photo to describe her experience.
“Blisters on my ankles, every step is painful, every small movement is excruciating – I initially thought it was just sunburn (even though I used sunscreen),” she noted. But things only got worse for Shan. A picture taken at A&E displayed her legs heavily bandaged as she lay on a stretcher awaiting further medical care.
“They gave me morphine and a s**t tonne of water for dehydration,” she added. “I was seen instantly with burns on my ankles and legs,” she revealed. “I was dressed and cleaned up with pain relief and antibiotics to go home with four weeks of resting.”
But what was the diagnosis?
“Skin poisoning,” Shan disclosed. Her post, which has been viewed by over 2.2 million TikTok users, saw her close: “After a bandage change every day and a lesson learnt to wear factor 50 instead of 30, I will hopefully be returning on holiday at some point!”
Skin poisoning, medically known as polymorphic light eruption, is a skin rash that can occur after exposure to sunlight. Indeed, the NHS advises online: “It’s more likely to happen when your skin is exposed to strong sunlight for the first time in a while, such as in spring or early summer, or when visiting a sunny country.
“The rash may come back every time your skin is exposed to sunlight. But as the summer goes on, your skin becomes more used to sunlight and it’s less likely to happen.
“You’re more likely to get polymorphic light eruption if you’re under 40, a woman or you have white skin. Boys aged 5 to 14 years are more likely to get a type of polymorphic light eruption called juvenile spring eruption that affects the ears.”
