4 days ago
Traveler issues stark warning after two-hour tanning session leaves her with severe sun poisoning
A woman has issued a stark warning after she spent just two hours tanning and developed severe sun poisoning that left her bed bound for days.
Shannon Armer, 25, from the UK, was on a five-day all-inclusive holiday in Portugal with her family.
But what should have been a relaxing and fun trip soon became an agonizing experience after a short session laying in the sun left her in severe pain.
On the first day, Shannon explained that she applied SPF 30 sunscreen and spent roughly two hours lounging by the pool.
But the next morning she woke up in horrific pain and noticed her legs were extremely swollen and red.
Thinking it was just a bad sunburn, she bought some cooling spray from a pharmacy and tried to go on with her day.
However, the pain only worsened, eventually leaving her unable to walk and bed bound for the rest of the trip.
'It was so painful,' Shannon told Need to Know recently. 'I couldn't even walk. I didn't realize how bad it was until the next day.
She was on a five-day all-inclusive holiday in Portugal with her family when she got a bad sunburn on her legs
'I'd only been laying in the sun for two hours and I was wearing SPF 30. The holiday was ruined because I was bed bound.
'I was just trying to get a tan but ended up burnt instead.'
Upon returning home, Shannon's burns still hadn't healed so she decided to go to the hospital, where she learned she had sun poisoning.
Doctors wrapped her burns in bandages and prescribed her antibiotics.
'Even the doctors were shocked,' she continued. 'They said they'd never seen a case like it.'
Shannon had to wait until she got back to the UK to go to hospital because she didn't have travel insurance.
And she issued a warning to others, saying, 'I didn't have insurance so I braved it until we got back to the UK.
'People should 100 percent get travel insurance as you never know what could go wrong on holiday.
'I didn't think anything like this would happen to me which is why I didn't get it.'
According to WebMD, sun poisoning is 'a severe sunburn that seems similar to an allergic reaction.'
'It's a burn that doesn't just redden or darken your skin - it makes you feel sick and intensely uncomfortable,' it added.
It can cause blistering or peeling skin, severe rash, severe pain, swelling, painful, gritty eyes, lip blisters, headache, fever and chills, nausea, and dizziness.
In May, another woman went viral after she shared her horrific experience with sun poisoning.
Ashlei Bianchi, 23, from New York, had spent the afternoon soaking up the sun with her family near a pool in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
But by the time she came inside, she realized that she had developed a slight redness on her face despite covering herself in sunscreen.
By evening, her forehead and other parts of her face had begun to swell - which she later noted were the first signs of something sinister.
However at the time, Ashlei believed that she was suffering from a mild sunburn and wiped her face with an aloe vera gel while continuing her trip.
But things quickly went downhill when she woke up on the final morning of the holiday to find one of her eyes had swollen shut.
Once she reached home, Ashlei began taking steroids and by the fourth day, her face to finally return to its normal shape.
