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I Was Giving My Son the Very Thing That Was Killing Him & Had No Idea

It’s easy for us to take our everyday blessings for granted. From clean air to a roof over our heads to healthy kids, these tend to be the things we overlook as we get used to them being the norm.

We often fail to realize how precious these gifts really are until they are taken away from us in an instant. No mother knows that better than Mandy Suzanne Smith. In a viral Facebook post she explains how her perfectly healthy son Zachary ended up on his death bed in just a matter of hours. More importantly, she weaves in the miraculous redemption of God in Zachary’s story, and it’s a sobering reminder that anything is possible if we fully place our faith in Him.

Read her powerful story that has now been shared over 114,000 times on Facebook:

February 21st may be just another day to everyone else, but for me, It’s a day that will forever be burned into my head. On this day, 2 years ago, I picked Zachary up from school and he was complaining of poison oak on his foot and that he felt like he had dirt or something in his eye. We put some cream on it and never thought much more about it. He went to stay the night with his nana that night and early the next morning, February 22nd she brought him back because he had started to break out in a red rash and he had been running fever. I brought him to the er in Monticello and they believed it to be some type of viral infection. So we got him some meds and went back home. It seemed with every hour that passed by he only got worse. The rash began to spread and completely cover his little body. His eyes were blood shot red, and his lips were bright red and were beginning to crack and peal. We knew something was not right so me and my mom brought him to Kdmc. It was there that a nurse practitioner told us that she believed Zachary had sjs (Stevens Johnson syndrome). It literally burns you from the inside out.


Facebook/Mandy Suzanne Smith

He had been taking a medication called lamotrigine (lamictal) for migraines he had been having. We never even thought what was going on with him could have been an allergic reaction because he had been on it for 12 days. So I thought surely if he was having some type of reaction to it then it would have happened the first night that he had taken it. We had even given him that medicine right before we left to bring him to Kdmc. I was giving him the very thing that was killing him and had no idea.

He was then sent to batsons children hospital in Jackson where they admitted him. We were there for 4 days, and with every day that passed we watched him get worse and worse and still felt like we had no answers. We finally seen a dermatologist who did a skin biopsy on him and then she walked my mother and I out of the room and confirmed to us that he DID indeed have sjs and it had turned into tens. I will never forget her words to us when we asked if he would be okay. She said ” I don’t know, he is a very sick little boy.” Our hearts sank. They then told us that we would be going to another hospital. A burn unit that was more experienced with dealing with sjs/tens.

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Facebook/Mandy Suzanne Smith

So on February 26th we were then air lifted to Augusta Georgia to the doctors hospital. We were only in the airplane for about 2 and a half hours, but that ride felt like eternity. By this point, it had gotten so bad that Zachary’s skin had began to blister and bubble up and was actually coming off. So he screamed and cried the entire ride. He was in more pain than you could possibly even imagine, and as a parent, there is nothing in this world worse than seeing your child hurt and be that sick and not be able to do a thing about it. When we made it to the hospital in Georgia, the doctor met me as soon as we got there and told me their plans. He said that they would be putting him in a medically induced coma and have a machine breathing for him, and they would be doing surgery to remove his skin and then would wrap him in a material called biobrane while his new skin grew back under it. I told Zachary that I loved him and that everything would be okay, kissed him, and then I had to leave the room.

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Facebook/Mandy Suzanne Smith

Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey is an editor at Outreach. She’s passionate about fear fighting, freedom writing, and the pursuit of excellence in the name of crucifying perfectionism. Glitter is her favorite color, 2nd only to pink, and 3rd only to pink glitter.

Luke Bryan Reveals How the Sudden Death of His Brother Drove Him to God

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