11-year-old boy loses 65% of his skin, placed on life support after taking ibuprofen

An 11-year-old boy suffered 65 per cent burns to his body after suffering a horrific allergic reaction to the painkiller ibuprofen.

Calvin Lock reacted so severely to the over-the-counter medicine that he was put on a life support machine for three days and rushed to a specialist burns hospital.

The youngster, from Littleport, Cambridgeshire, is now making a good recovery after his terrifying brush with death.

Calvin’s ordeal began on September 26 when he was given the painkiller to tackle a viral infection. The schoolboy woke up the next morning with a rash on his face and a slight swelling to his ear.

Doctors mistakenly thought he had chickenpox and gave him more antibiotics which, the following day, had caused the swelling and rashes to spread across his body.

His parents, Robyn Moult, 38, and Daryn Chambers, 47, were told by NHS Direct that he was having an allergic reaction and that he should be taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, urgently.

Doctors at the hospital also mistook his symptoms for chickenpox and sent him home with yet more antibiotics, which left him unable to walk, talk or see by the following morning.

Doctors initially thought Calvin had chickenpox and gave him antibiotics which, the following day, had caused the swelling and rashes to spread across his body.

Unable to breathe, Calvin was rushed back to Addenbrooke’s by his horrified parents.

There doctors eventually established that the stricken youngster had Stevens Johnson Syndrome – a potentially deadly skin disease that usually results from a drug reaction – and moved him into intensive care.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen are well-known to cause this rare but very serious reaction.

Calvin was immediately put on a drip as medics started to treat more than 200 blisters that had appeared on his body. But his condition continued to deteriorate and he was put on a life support machine and transferred to a specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex.

Calvin’s devastated family were told he was critically ill and that his chances of survival were slim. Experts at Broomfield removed 65 per cent of his skin and his hair and fingernails also fell out as his life hung by a thread.

After two days and two operations, the schoolboy was finally able to breathe by himself. A week later, his feeding tube was removed and he could eat by himself again.

By October 19, he was allowed home for the first time in almost a month.

Calvin is now learning to walk again and his hair and nails are starting to regrow.

His mother Robyn said: ‘It has been a very tough time but Calvin is a little battler and we’re just so proud of him.’

The mother-of-four added: ‘We are now hoping to raise some money and raise awareness of this terrible condition, which is not as rare as people believe.’

Calvin loves football, karate and fishing and his soccer club, Littleport under-12s, are also staging special events to raise cash to back him.
Source: UK Mail