Back in December 2009, Sandy Duperval, 34, was suffering from a particularly persistent sinus infection. The singer was preparing to go on tour in Morocco in just a few days, so she decided to pay a visit to her doctor to get the symptoms cleared up before her travel.
Duperval received antibiotics that would, supposedly, clear her infection before she had to leave.
But just ten days later, the singer only found herself in the hospital, battling an angry rash that was threatening to take her life away. Duperval had been deathly allergic to the medication that had been prescribed to her; taking it caused her to develop toxic epidermal necrolysis, the rash that was manifesting itself across her entire body.
The entire night, Duperval’s family was on edge, waiting to hear if their daughter would survive.
Thankfully, doctors were able to perform a life-changing surgery on Duperval overnight and help set her up for recovery in the coming future.
Unfortunately, though Duperval was able to survive, it was already at the price of her skin and physical appearance. At that point, the rash had spread to cover 90% of her body and was also growing inside her as well. Ulcers were forming around her lips and in her stomach, her nails fell off and she was bleeding in the mouth.
“When they took the tube out of me and I saw the blood coming out of my mouth, I realized how bad it was,” Duperval explained. “Then I saw my face for the first time and cried like I had never cried before.”
For the next five years, Duperval tried to spend as much of her time as possible inside. She didn’t want anyone to see her mottled, disfigured skin and developed stress and anxiety from what happened.
“My career was going extremely well and I was pretty much living the dream. Suddenly my whole life changed overnight, it took years for my skin and health to return to normal. I was terrified to leave the house because of what people would think and suffered from PTSD,” she admitted.
Now, finally in 2016, Duperval has made a full recovery and is slowly regaining her confidence to resume singing and touring once more.
