Shanyna Isom has consulted every possible specialist, including a doctor in the Netherlands, but she still as no idea what is wrong with her. The 28-year-old beautician and former University of Memphis law student has developed a condition so severe, fingernails grow from the hair follicles all over her body.
“Black scabs were coming out of her skin,” said her mother, Kathy Gary. “The nails would grow so long and come out and regrow themselves. They are hard to touch and stick you.”
The disease so far has affected not only her skin, but her bones and her vision. Because Isom is unable to walk without a cane, her mother helps her out of bed each day.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, where Isom is being treated, told her family that she is the only person in the world with this unknown condition.
And now she has $500,000 in unpaid medical bills. Isom has state insurance, but it doesn’t cover medical care in Maryland. Her mother lost her job as a medical receptionist because she looks after her daughter at home, so savings have dried up.
Once a month, mother and daughter travel to Baltimore from Memphis to monitor her treatment.
But now, Isom has put all of her energy into creating the S.A.I. Foundation (so named for her initials) to help others with mystery illnesses.
Bank of America has agreed to take donations at any of their branch offices. Friends have organized fundraisers, and her high school has dedicated a football game to her charity.
Despite her debilitating illness, Isom told ABCNews.com, “I don’t know whether to smile or cry. I am very blessed.”
On her blog, Pray for Shanyna, she laments: “It has taken all of my hair out and has left my body with scabs all over it, plus I have lost about 200 pounds. Two years ago, I was a healthy woman on my own … had big dreams and goals that I was following until one day my body completely shut down on me.”
Isom was a junior studying criminal justice when the mystery illness first occurred in September 2009, according to WMC TV in Memphis, which first reported the story.
She went to an emergency room for an asthma attack and was given a large dose of steroids, which doctors suspected caused an allergic reaction.
After returning home, Isom began itching. Doctors prescribed Benadryl, but it got worse.
“It was uncontrollable and we didn’t know what it was,” said her mother.
Soon, her legs turned black.
“It looked as if she had been in a house fire and gotten burned,” said Gary.
Doctors thought she had eczema or a staph infection and prescribed drugs, but it got worse. Meanwhile, all tests came back negative…
Read more: KVIA-TV
