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After her vaccine in February 2021 Patricia developed a rash that looked like shingles. When it spread, she was rushed to hospital.

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“I should have been sent to the burns unit and smothered in emollients. But because of my age they put me on a senile dementia ward. They said to me “well you are 74, dear!” as if I couldn’t be anything else!”

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As her condition worsened, Patricia looked for answers using her iPad and realised she didn’t have shingles but a rare condition called Steven Johnson’s Syndrome which has a mortality rate of up to 40%, higher than Ebola.

Recognising she wasn’t going to get the treatment she needed, Patricia discharged herself and went home. Despite her skin peeling off “like wallpaper” and leaving piles of dead cells like a mini snowdrift in her hallway, Patricia nursed herself back to health. However her skin is still sore and burnt (including internal skin in her mouth and ears), and the risk of recurrence and of skin cancer is now high, as is her risk of going blind.

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“It’s always with you, it’s is always what’s next? It can recur at any time. My skin is so delicate it’s like tissue. I have to be so careful with all products I use too.”

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As no one made the link to the vaccine, Patricia had another vaccination. Two days later, she fell asleep in the garden and something didn’t feel right so she looked at her CCTV footage and realised she’d had a seizure. Her previously well controlled diabetes also became unmanageable and she had to start injecting insulin.

As she was classified as at high risk, Patricia followed advice to get a fourth vaccine. That night she passed out for 12 hours and feels lucky to have survived, especially as she lives alone. She went on to be diagnosed with Pericarditis. The whole experience has changed her.

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"You don’t realise until you get old as you’re only old once but they do think you’re not worth saving. I am a child of the NHS, we were brought up to respect doctors. But this experience has changed me and made me very outspoken!"

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Patricia has done significant research into Steven Johnson’s Syndrome and has found 15 new cases in the UK after the vaccines. She can’t find any of them so wonders if she is the only one to survive. A Freedom of Information request she submitted to know more was denied as the information is under a section 22 notice as “it is not in the public interest.