“A nightmare”: a mother and her daughter victims of giant blisters after swimming in Lake Bourget

A simple walk that turns into a nightmare. On Sunday, June 9, Albana Tanushi, her mother, decides with her daughter to take a walk around Lake Bourget, located near the town of Aix-les-Bains, in Savoy.

As indicated then The Free DauphinéThey both choose not to swim because the water is too cold, but they still decide to wet their arms and legs in the lake water.

“The blister was swelling before my eyes”

It was the next day, Monday, June 10, when the first worrying signs appeared: burning and a sensation of heat. “It hurt a little, it itched, you could see it was all red,” her daughter explains to BFMTV.

Only at night does the situation worsen, with blisters appearing on the legs. The Albanian then decides to go to the emergency room in Aix-les-Bains, where a doctor prescribes a cream with corticosteroids and allergy medications. Despite this, her blisters continue to grow and her mother decides to urgently consult a dermatologist.

“I thought, ‘Are these really my legs? Is that me?’ “I told myself it wasn’t my feet, I was having a nightmare. You could see from moment to moment that the blister was swelling in front of my eyes,” she told our camera.

Morphine-based medications are then prescribed to relieve pain, as well as cleansing treatments and creams.

Toxic substance from a plant involved?

Questioned by BFMTV, Marie-Odile Riou-Gotta, head of the dermatology service at the Métropole Savoie hospital, points to the hypothesis of contact with a plant that was in the lake.

“We call it phytophotodermatosis, also called prairie dermatitis. It is the combination of contact with the toxic substance of a plant and exposure to the sun,” he says. Contacted by BFMTV.com, the ARS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stated that it had not “received any information regarding this situation or similar cases.”

A few days later, Albana and her daughter’s legs deflated, but the experience remained painful and a nurse stopped by daily to tend to their wounds. “I didn’t have the courage or the strength to play, it was impossible for me,” concludes the mother.