6 days ago
Woman Spends Day in the Sea—Wakes Up Terrified by Her Own Reflection
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Paige Cudini was enjoying a birthday trip to San Diego when a seemingly normal day in the sun turned into a medical nightmare.
The marketing manager, 25, who lives in Las Vegas, had grown up in the southern U.S. and was no stranger to sunlight—but what happened next left her stunned. "It was so shocking that 90 minutes in California changed my life forever," Cudini told Newsweek.
Before heading out for her surfing lesson, Cudini applied sunscreen multiple times to her face and scalp—the only parts of her body exposed to the sun—believing this would be sufficient protection against its rays.
From left: Cudini gives a thumbs-up while wearing a wet suit; and her face is seen swollen.
From left: Cudini gives a thumbs-up while wearing a wet suit; and her face is seen swollen.
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"While I was out, I did feel like I was burning a bit, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary for me," Cudini said. "I had begun to see a bit of redness around dinner time, but it seemed like my typical burn, so I didn't pay too much attention to it."
Cudini applied aloe vera before going to bed that evening, thinking it would reduce the redness.
"As I was starting to fall asleep, I noticed I was shaking quite a bit and that I couldn't get warm for the life of me, but eventually I was able to fall asleep," Cudini said. "On July 7, that's when I realized something was wrong.
"I woke up in pain and could barely open my eyes. I ran to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and realized my face was completely swollen."
From left: Cudini poses with her face covered in aloe vera; and she puts her thumb up to show her smooth face after the skin peeled off.
From left: Cudini poses with her face covered in aloe vera; and she puts her thumb up to show her smooth face after the skin peeled off.
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Cudini has shared a series of photos on TikTok (@ where her eyes and nose appear to be puffy. Then, she starts to blister followed by losing the ability to open her left eye.
She told Newsweek that her symptoms include shaking, swelling, and pain.
On July 8, she was officially diagnosed with sun poisoning—a severe form of sunburn characterized by blisters, indicating a second-degree burn that can lead to serious complications—and was prescribed a 15-day course of Prednisone.
"At this point, my pain was through the roof, and I was struggling to breathe through my nose because of the swelling," Cudini said.
The side effects persisted for more than a week, including chills, nausea, headaches, blistering, dehydration, and even muscle stiffness.
"Once the swelling had started to go down a bit, that's when the scabbing and peeling got me," Cudini said. "Whenever I tried to put on aloe vera or burn gel, my skin was coming off in chunks; I had no idea skin could even do this."
"Honestly, I was terrified. I had such a hard time recognizing myself and even my Face ID stopped recognizing me," she added.
"I was still working this entire time and could barely keep my eyes open, which was very unfortunate.
"Waking up to my eyes being completely shut was the worst day of the entire sun-poisoning experience because I truly had no idea what to do. I was putting ice packs on my eyes, massaging my face to try to reduce swelling, elevating my head while I slept, and nothing seemed to be working."
Despite the physical discomfort, Cudini said that finding humor in the situation helped her cope.
"Throughout the 1.5 weeks, the one thing that kept my head above water was learning how to laugh at the situation. Because of my post, I've been so fortunate to hear other people's stories and really understand just how crazy an experience like this can change a person."
"I'm fully black and literally got sun poisoning. It's not fun because it itches and burn at the same time. Then peels. USE Y'ALL SUNSCREEN NO MATTER YOUR RACE!!!!!" said one user on the video that has 2.2 million views.
"This happened to me when I was 10—it's the worst pain and trauma of my life and needed to go to hospital when I got home from holiday. I really sympathize and hope you're ok, it's SO painful," posted another user.
From left: Cudini smiles as her face has returned back to normal.
From left: Cudini smiles as her face has returned back to normal.
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Though she has now recovered, Cudini said the experience has radically changed her relationship with the sun.
"I'm able to work in the office again and have taken some new preventive measures such as wearing sunglasses and a hat anywhere I go, switching to a mineral sunscreen, and waiting to go outside until the sun has gone down," she said.
"I am still quite nervous to go back into the sun for a longer period of time, but I think that's something I'll just need to work up to moving forward."
