{"id":120627,"date":"2025-05-21T19:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120627\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T19:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:51:10","slug":"i-was-prescribed-a-common-antibiotic-and-wasnt-told-of-the-risks-it-caused-my-organs-to-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120627\/","title":{"rendered":"I was prescribed a common antibiotic and wasn’t told of the risks… it caused my organs to fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 27-year-old woman is sounding the alarm over a commonly prescribed antibiotic that caused her organs to fail.<\/p>\n

Elle Dunn was 15 when she was prescribed minocycline to clear up her acne by a dermatologist right before her sister’s wedding.<\/p>\n

However, what was meant to be a simple treatment instead left her\u00a0fighting for her life.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dunn recalled that within days of taking the antibiotic medication, her ‘jaw began to lock up’ and she began to ‘break out into weird rashes’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But while her family kept saying that her symptoms were ‘normal’, her rashes soon spread over all her arms and legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time she attended her sister’s wedding, Dunn had\u00a0severe hives and a dangerously high 106-degree fever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Little did she know that her organs were shutting down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was silently suffering from Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms syndrome\u00a0(DReSS).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Elle <\/p>\n

Elle Dunn was 15-years-old when she was prescribed Minocycline to clear up her acne by a dermatologist right before her sister’s wedding<\/p>\n

DReSS is described as a hypersensitive allergic reaction to certain drugs. The immune system goes into overdrive and starts attacking healthy tissues and organs.<\/p>\n

This can cause a fever, rashes and inflammation in crucial organs such as the liver, lungs and kidneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Minocycline is\u00a0prescribed to around 1million Americans every year for\u00a0various bacterial infections including pneumonia and in some cases, acne.<\/p>\n

While facial acne is usually a result of hormonal imbalances and clogged pores, it can also be caused by bacteria on the skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Dunn’s case, doctors struggled to pinpoint the cause of her deteriorating condition as her body continued to swell up and develop rashes for weeks at end.<\/p>\n

She recalled in a TikTok video: ‘Every single one of [my] organs was shutting down and [doctors] told my parents that [I] was actually going to die.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

As doctors scrambled to find out what was happening to Dunn, the then-teenager stopped breathing for about 30 minutes due to the severity of her condition and had to be put on assisted breathing.<\/p>\n

She told PEOPLE<\/a>: ‘I remember just feeling like my body was shutting down. I had no idea what was happening to me, and neither did the doctors at first.’<\/p>\n

However two weeks later, doctors misdiagnosed her with\u00a0Parvovirus – a contagious virus mainly affecting children that can cause facial rashes and a fever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DReSS <\/p>\n

DReSS symptoms\u00a0can cause an outbreak of measles-like rashes all over the body. (Stock image)<\/p>\n

But she continued to remain in immense pain as her symptoms worsened over the next two months and had to return back to the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, a medical student realized that she was suffering from DReSS syndrome after they had spent a week learning about the disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DReSS syndrome is most commonly triggered by antibiotics and can be caused by any form of the anti-bacterial drug.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its symptoms can cause an outbreak of measles-like rashes all over the body, high fever, increase in white blood cells in the blood, swelling in the lymph nodes and injuries to internal organs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The exact mechanisms of how the syndrome is triggered remains unknown but experts believe it is usually due to a combination of genetic factors and the immune system’s response to certain drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scientists estimate that one in 10,000 suffer from the condition – out of which one in 10 die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The syndrome is usually treated with a combination of topical steroid treatments and anti-inflammatory medication.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In Dunn’s case, as doctors scrambled to find out what was happening to her, the then-teenager stopped breathing for about 30 minutes<\/p>\n

After her diagnosis, Dunn told the magazine: ‘When they finally told me it was DReSS syndrome, I had never heard of it before.\u00a0I had no idea an antibiotic for acne could do this to me.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to the severity of her condition, she was asked to use steroid treatments for weeks to suppress her immune system and stop the spread of the rashes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dunn now claims that she has since learned to be extremely cautious with medication and does not take any medication without checking with experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furthermore, she has also begun efforts to raise awareness about the syndrome and said: ‘If my story can help even one person recognize signs early and get the right diagnosis, then it’s worth sharing .’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 27-year-old woman is sounding the alarm over a commonly prescribed antibiotic that caused her organs to fail.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[92,105,4326,449,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-120627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-medication","11":"tag-tiktok","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}