You Be the Doctor: What Caused This Life-Threatening Rash?

Sept. 9, 2008— -- Debbie Kaplan knew she was sick -- sick enough for her doctor to give her the sulfa-based antibiotic Bactrim to cure her. But was the bronchitis connected with what happened next?

"I was taking a shower. And then I noticed that I had itchy bumps on my arms," Kaplan, 30, remembered.

She originally thought her mystery rash was hives, but as the day went on the itch spread until the bumps were all over her body. Kaplan and her family though it might be an allergic reaction to the Bactrim or maybe poison ivy -- allergies do run in her family.

"By the time I went to bed I started feeling … feverish," she said, and she had a sore throat, splotchy face and swollen eyes by then as well.

The next morning, Kaplan visited a walk-in urgent care clinic and was seen by Dr. Louise Moody.

"When I see somebody with a rash, one of the first things I ask 'em is, 'Does it itch?'" Moody said, adding that Kaplan's "hurt a little bit. And that usually doesn't happen with allergic reactions. At least, not with poison ivy."

Moody was also concerned about the blisters in Kaplan's mouth. After hearing about the dose of Bactrim, Moody said she immediately though she was having an allergic reaction and prescribed prednisone and antihistamines.

"I went home that day and I took the first dose," Kaplan said. "I felt like there were bugs crawling under my skin. I felt like I had poison ivy inside and out."

"Her face was red and swollen," her mother, Pat Gallagher, said. She looked like she had been in a "terrible brawl."

The drugs prescribed to help what Moody thought was an allergic reaction weren't helping.

"I was twitching at this point. I just couldn't sit still," Kaplan said. "My eyes were swollen. I started to feel some stingy feelings in my mouth. I went to the hospital that night, to the emergency room."