A mystery illness has stolen the life of this 28-year-old. The Tennessee woman, labeled a medical mystery, has fallen victim to a rare, unidentified illness where her body is growing out human nails in place of hair. Here’s how she is dealing with the painful situation as she calls her life a “nightmare”. Doctors are clueless about her condition.
“I am the only one in the world with my illness,” says Shanyna A. Isom from Memphis. Back in 2009, Isom suffered an asthma attack and the doctors treated her with steroids. In a fateful allergic reaction to the medicines, her skin cell growth experienced a 12-fold increase. Meaning, she started producing 12 times the normal number of skin cells per hair follicle, suffocating her skin. This caused her skin to darken, along with bumps and hard scabs developing all over her body. As a result, her hair follicles started producing nails, instead of hair. The doctors realized that these ‘bumps’ on Shanyna’s skin were actually human nails!
Shanyna was in her first year at university when the nightmare began and since then, the 28-year-old has become bedridden living with her ‘rare’ illness. Doctors are baffled by her condition and have been trying everything to find a cure for her. They have diagnosed her entire body several times and attempted several treatments for conditions ranging from eczema to staph infections. But nothing has been successful and Shanyna still struggles to wake up from her nightmare.
The Isom family is knee-deep in debt because of their daughter’s medical condition. Her mother describes how Shanyna has become a human porcupine with “black scabs coming out of her skin”. She is “hard to touch as her nails may sting.” The debt adds to seeing her pain each day. Unfortunately, their state-issued insurance doesn’t cover her illness and they already have outstanding medical bills of over $250,000 to this day.
While Shanyna relies on help and support from loved ones, we must hope and pray that she gets cured of her unusual medical condition and leads a normal life someday.
