Traveller left with ‘rotting zombie skin’ after spending 12 hours in the Arctic sun with lime juice on his hands in ‘bizarre’ reaction
- The unnamed Australian man suffered ‘unbearable’ burning pain on his hands
- He developed blisters when lime juice on his skin reacted with sunlight
- He had to seek medical help in a remote town in on the west coast of Greenland
A traveller who went hiking in Greenland ended up with ‘rotten zombie skin’ when his hands blistered after he got lime juice on them.
The unnamed 29-year-old suffered the ‘bizarre’ skin problem when, after squeezing limes, the juice on his hands reacted with sunlight.
Blisters sprung up on his fingers, causing ‘unbearable’ burning pain, meaning he had to go to a hospital on the isolated Arctic island.
The blisters had to be lanced and his hands bandaged up, and the Australian man finally recovered after about a month.
The unnamed 29-year-old, from Australia, had been hiking and camping in Greenland, when he got lime juice on his hands, which then reacted with the sunlight and caused blistering and what he called ‘zombie’ skin
The patient had been hiking around Greenland for a couple of weeks, camping in the wild, photographing icebergs and using water from running streams.
He first noticed something was wrong when small purple marks appeared on the back of his hands and fingers, according to a study in BMJ Case Reports.
Although painless to begin with, within a couple of days the marks had developed into ‘extremely uncomfortable’ itching and burning blisters.
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He said: ‘One evening, I was unable to sleep as the burning sensation was unbearable, so I decided to visit the hospital emergency department.
‘The wounds were looking pretty bad, almost like rotten “zombie” skin.’
By this time, the man was in a town called Ilulissat, which has a population of around 5,000 people.
Doctors diagnosed him with phytophotodermatitis, in which plant chemicals on the skin react with UV light from the sun to cause a reaction.
They said the blisters were ‘bizarrely distributed’ on the skin on his hands.
When the man explained what he had been doing, doctors realised he had been out in the sun for up to 12 hours after squeezing limes, which contain sun-reacting chemicals.
The blisters appeared between the man’s fingers and on the back of his hands and caused an ‘unbearable’ burning and itching sensation which caused the man to go to hospital to seek medical help
The man’s hands healed after about a month (pictured), leaving only some discoloured patches which medics said will heal over time
The hiker explained: ‘At one point, during my stay on the island, I had used fresh lime in my dinner. The following morning I was going to set off for a day of hiking.
‘I still had two limes left over so I squeezed all of the juice from the limes into my water bottle, making sure to get every last drop of juice.
‘I was out in the sun for approximately 10 to 12 hours that day. A few days later, I noticed some small, purple marks on the top side of my fingers and hands.’
The medics who wrote the report, led by Dr Luit Penninga from Ilulissat Hospital, said the way the man’s condition developed was bizarre.
They explained when phytophotodermatitis is caused by citrus fruit it often appears between the fingers and on the backs of the hands because of the way the juice flows.
And he had suffered from the reaction because he was visiting during the Arctic Circle’s summer, when the sun does not go down, the researchers said.
In an email follow-up two months after his ordeal, the man had recovered fully except for some discolouration which the doctors said would disappear over time.
WHAT IS PHYTOPHOTODERMATITIS?
Phytophotodermatitis is a reaction between a plant chemical which gets onto the skin and UV radiation from sunlight.
It can cause irritation and blisters, redness, swelling, pain and a burning sensation.
Plants which can cause the reaction include citrus fruits, celery, parsnips, carrots and meadow grass.
And it may be more likely to happen to people when they’re gardening, camping, fishing or hiking because they’re more likely to come into contact with plants while spending time in the sun.
Although it can lead to infection in some cases, the condition usually clears up on its own and can be treated by cleaning the area, avoiding both the plant trigger and the sun, and using skin creams.
Source: Medical News Today
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