Wanda Morrow
Warning: This story contains graphic details about flesh decay.
In November 2019, a broken nose turned into a fight for life for Wanda Morrow, a 61-year-old wife and mother from St. Joseph, Mo.
To cope with the pain and side effects of a broken nose she sustained after experiencing a fall after tripping on a deep pothole in the middle of a parking lot, Wanda was prescribed a medication to improve her comfort level. Shortly after, when she was back home, Wanda’s recovery took a drastic turn for the worse.
“I wasn’t feeling well, feeling like I was developing a rash. I remember sitting on the couch and my husband was going to work and said if I didn’t feel better by the time he got home, he’d take me to the doctor,” Wanda recalls. “When he got home hours later, I hadn’t moved from the couch. I was stuck to the couch.”
When her husband helped her up, Wanda says that the skin on her back had literally slid off.
“I couldn’t walk properly to the car as the skin and muscles on the bottoms of my feet felt like they had melted off.”
Wanda had suffered Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), a rare, serious disorder of the skin and mucous membranes that is often a result of an adverse reaction to medication that affects fewer than 20,000 people in the U.S. each year. SJS often begins with flu-like symptoms, followed by the development of a rash, then the top layer of skin sheds.
After being admitted to a regional hospital in St. Joseph, Wanda was put into a medically induced coma and transferred to the Grossman Burn Center at Research Medical Center and into the care of Megan Garcia, MD, Board-Certified Surgeon and burn specialist.
“While we never were able to determine the specific cause that led to Wanda’s diagnosis, SJS and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TENS) are serious wounds for patients,” says Dr. Garcia. “Burn centers are typically the only places that have the ability to handle such extensive wounds.”
“When I woke up, I was asked what day it was. I said November 21, which had been the same day my husband found me on the couch. I was told that it was Christmas,” Wanda said; she’d been in a coma for more than one month. “I missed Thanksgiving, my son’s birthday, Christmas. I just broke down crying.”
Wanda would be in the hospital for a total of three months while she recovered from SJS. During her stay, she had to go through many different tests and exercises to recover, including physical therapy to learn to walk again. Since leaving the hospital, she attends regular therapy sessions with a psychiatrist to help with PTSD as a result of SJS.
While recalling her struggles with SJS often brings strong emotions for Wanda, recalling the care team she had while inpatient at Research Medical Center brings joy to an otherwise difficult time.
“My care team at the Burn Center were wonderful and really pushed me to become strong again. They were all very dedicated. I feel most hospitals would not try as hard as they did,” Wanda says. “I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for them. I may have missed birthdays and holidays while I was in a coma, but because of them, I am able to be with my family for all holidays and birthdays now.”
Three years after she was discharged, Wanda reunited with Dr. Garcia and the nurses and physical therapists of the Grossman Burn Center at Research Medical Center during the Burn Survivors Reunion in February 2023.
"If it wasn't for everyone in this room, especially Dr. Garcia, I wouldn't be here today," Wanda said at the event.
Read more about Wanda's story on the St. Joseph News-Press website or on the KNPN Fox26 news YouTube channel.