Holidaymaker unable to walk for 18 months after seizure in hot shower left her with severe burns down to her BONES
Published on November 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
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A WOMAN was left unable to walk for 18 months and “burned to the bone” after suffering a seizure in a hot shower.
Annie Perez, who was diagnosed with at 15, was expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she jetted off to Italy.
Annie Perez jetted off to Sardinia, Italy, with friends to see a concertCredit: Kennedy News
The 38-year-old, who has epilepsy, suffered a seizure while having a showerCredit: Kennedy News
She woke up in hospital two days later and was told 11 per cent of her body was burnedCredit: Kennedy News
The 38-year-old landed booked the trip to Sardinia to see her favourite band perform at a concert.
But disaster struck on the June 2022 holiday when she went for a shower and suffered a seizure while in the bathtub.
Annie was airlifted to hospital with severe burns on her right arm and both legs after pals raised the alarm.
Annie, from Chingford, East London, said: “I finished breakfast and went for a shower. I never lock the bathroom door because I’m epileptic and I don’t do that.
“As they [my friends] were coming past they noticed there was water coming out of the bathroom.
“What they told me was they knocked a few times, said my name, I wasn’t responsive so they opened it and realised what was going on.”
The holidaymaker woke up with no memory of the horror two days later.
“It took a couple of days for me to come around, I woke up in hospital and saw those thick white bandages on both of my legs and my left arm,” she recalled.
“I was bed bound the whole time so I didn’t feel any pain and they were giving me strong painkillers.”
But doctors informed her she had burns across 11 per cent of her body and would have to remain in hospital for three weeks.
Annie was then transferred to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London where she stayed for two months.
She explained: “They started taking these bandages off and unravelling each layer and the colour started to show.
“I thought ‘gosh this looks quite something’, each layer got me more scared of what I was going to see.
“I remember it started to hurt the closer they were getting to my skin. I remember seeing my left leg, ankle and foot.
Annie had to stay in hospital for two monthsCredit: Kennedy News
She couldn’t walk unaided for 18 monthsCredit: Kennedy News
Annie is now fundraising to freeze her eggs after the accident put her life on hold for nearly four yearsCredit: Kennedy News
“I didn’t quite understand what I was looking at. The outer burns were quite crispy so I could tell that was burnt skin, it was like something you would see in pictures in anatomy class.
“11% of my body was burned. Some areas to the bone, others to the muscle.”
Annie was forced to use a wheelchair, a frame and walking sticks for nearly two years.
The 38-year-old still has laser therapy, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy for her injuries.
She has also set up a GoFundMe to freeze her eggs so she will be able to have children.
In a statement penned on the fundraiser, Annie further shared the trauma of discovering the extent of her injuries.
Symptoms of epilepsy
Symptoms of seizures can include:
- your body becoming stiff or floppy
- suddenly falling to the floor
- jerking or twitching movements in your body
- peeing unintentionally
- losing awareness of what’s around you – you may stare into space and not be able to respond normally
- unusual feelings or sensations, such as strange smells, numbness or tingling, changes in your vision, or suddenly feeling scared
- unusual behaviour, such as fidgeting or walking around and not being aware of what you’re doing
A seizure usually lasts a few seconds or minutes, and stops by itself.
You might be aware of having a seizure and remember it afterwards, or you might not.
Symptoms of epilepsy often start in young children and people over 50, but it can happen at any age.
Epileptic seizures are different from febrile seizures, which can happen in children when they have a high temperature.
Source; NHS
“I was taken to a room on the bed, and that was the first time I saw my burns,” she wrote.
“Once I got back to the hospital bay, I called my mum and with a lump in my throat I told her ‘Mum, it’s bad’.
“Still to this day I don’t know how to describe what I saw. The way each layer of bandage seemed to change shades of different colours.
“The smell of skin. The oozing and then the site of my legs and hand – colours of skin, muscle and bone that I had only ever seen in books.
“It was bizarre and yet, somehow, it was now me.”
“I have quite a lot of nerve damage in my ankle and lots of pins and needles if I stand still,” Annie added.
“The left leg is the most impacted. My right leg is healing well, it’s a process.”
She said the accident had impacted her confidence, finding it hard to juggle recovery alongside maintaining relationships and work.
But Annie has since been able to travel back to Sardinia with the hope to make new memories.
“You just have to adapt constantly. I have to accept that what’s happening it’s going to be for the rest of my life,” she said.
“It’s a really lovely place to go, I did revisit the following year and went to the hospital and met everybody.”
Annie pictured as she stood up for the first time after the accidentCredit: Kennedy News
The 38-year-old still has laser therapy, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy for her injuriesCredit: Kennedy News 
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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