We knew the allergy to pollen or peanuts. Abigail, from Arizona in the United States, suffers from an extremely rare allergy… to water. If her skin touches it, she is immediately seized with painful rashes. Worse still, she vomits if she tries to drink it and talks regarding her tears “like acid”.
The 15-year-old suffers from what doctors call “aquagenic urticaria”, which most often affects women following puberty. She returns to her illness with the Mirror: “My own tears cause a reaction where my face becomes red and burns very strongly. I cry like a normal person and it hurts (…) I vomit if I drink water, my chest hurts a lot and my heart starts beating very fast”.
To stay hydrated, she has no choice but to swallow rehydration tablets with juice.
Abigail fears the lack of information regarding this pathology. “I don’t know if it might kill me, I haven’t been told. I have symptoms that might stop my heart, but no one knows regarding the disease, so they don’t know if my heart or my lungs might stop working. I have no idea what might happen, which scares me,” she laments.
While waiting for news on this very particular allergy, the young girl avoids taking her shower every day. When the weather is bad and the rain falls, Abigail must also take precautions to avoid any rashes and burns.
