Tim von Ahn had a fatty cyst on his back that was causing him slight problems, and went to the health care centre to have it removed. However, the wound became infected. Tim was prescribed Cefadroxil, an antibiotica (nearly related to penicillin*) treatment that is commonly used in Swedish health care. There were complications immediately afterwards: high temperature, skin rash. Vital organs in his body were affected.
The reaction Tim von Ahn suffered to the antibiotics was such that he later died.
– Tim had three small children. He had his whole life ahead of him, says Birgitta, his mother.
Extremely unusual – only nine deaths worldwide
Tim was adopted from Indonesia. It is primarily people from China and South East Asia who suffer this type of reaction to medication. A severe reaction such as this, with the risk of vital organs being affected, is called DRESS Syndrome.
According to a thesis published in The American Journal of Medicine, there have only been nine documented deaths of DRESS Syndrome worldwide. Tim’s is the first confirmed death of DRESS Syndrome in Sweden. The fact that he died of an antibiotica is something that is baffling experts in the field of anaphylactic hypersensitivity to medication.
– I have never seen a true penicillin allergy like this in all my 16 years in the profession, says Theo Gülen, allergist at the Karolinska University Hospital.
– None of us can understand this. Penicillin is supposed to save lives, not end them, says Birgitta, Tim’s mother.
*In an earlier version of this article Cefadroxil was named penicillin. Cefadroxil is an antibiotic nearly related to penicillin and can be seen as an modified version of penicillin.