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Marie Jourdan (Dermatologist)
Beatrice Gaucahas, a 22-year-old Irishwoman, tells the networks that she lost her sight for two days, victim of an extraordinary eczema attack. How does this happen, and how to react in the event of a flare-up? Dermatologist Marie Jourdan answers us.
An unpleasant but rather common skin disease, eczema had extreme consequences for a young woman, whose story is relayed by the DailyMail. Two years ago, when she was 20, Beatrice Gaucahas found herself with an outbreak of eczema on her face so bad that it closed her eyes and peeled off the skin, giving her a monstrous appearance.
“The worst push of my life” documented on the networks
Her face swollen, crusty over almost its entire surface, her eyes completely closed, Beatrice was afraid of never finding her face again. “It was one of the most painful and traumatic experiences of my life”she told the DailyMail. Given the intensity of her crisis, the young woman says she went to the hospital and stayed there for two weeks. Five biopsies were performed by doctors to try to find out the cause of this skin condition. Doctors confirmed that her excruciating symptoms were due to a flare-up of eczema. Now recovered, Beatrice looks back on her skin journey and provides her good advice through Tiktok posts.
Acute eczema, plaques that occur in two cases
The case of Beatrice Gaucachas is however rather rare, as agreed by the dermatologist Marie Jourdan contacted on the subject.
“According to the photo, it is a classic contact eczema affecting the eyes, except that it is extremely important, as if the therapy did not work. We can imagine that this young woman had eczema of the face, probably linked to a cream applied several times, and that she found herself allergic to the corticosteroids themselves, causing her condition to worsen”.
As the dermatologist explains, acute eczema comes in the form of red patches, which scratch, and which will present vesicles capable of superinfecting themselves. It occurs in two different cases:
“Either we have atopic terrain conducive to eczema, with dry skin, itchy insides of the elbows, allergic phenomena that go with it (watery eyes, asthma, etc.), or it is contact eczema that appears in contact with an element: a costume jewellery, a cream, a henna tattoo… In this case, it is often very acute eczema!”.
Finally, a volatile product, such as nail polish vapors, perfume, or creams applied to the hands, can also cause patches on the face.
Treating eczema flare-ups, a three-step treatment
What to do in case of an eczema outbreak, especially contact eczema? Dr. Marie Jourdan reminds us of the right attitude:
“The treatment is first to stop contact with the offending product. Then we will calm the inflammatory disease with corticosteroid creams morning and evening for 15 days. Finally, during and after this attack treatment, we stop all the creams and ointments usually used to switch to a healing, restorative and hypoallergenic cream, like cold cream, and nothing else!
It is important to remember that the use of creams do it yourself, or essential oils, which are highly allergenic, should be totally avoided in this case.
In-game cosmetic abuse?
We can nevertheless be surprised by the extent of the eczema presented by Beatrice Gaucahas and its very localized nature. Let’s hope that his pronounced taste for make-up and cosmetic creams of all kinds and his quest for followers did not indirectly cause these spectacular manifestations.
The young woman would not have experienced such a severe outbreak for two years. She now follows a strict diet of fruits and vegetables and removing gluten which is helping to control her skin condition and alleviate symptoms. His eczema is however a theme that comes up regularly on his page. “My main goal is to raise awareness about eczema” she claims. Objective achieved: the tiktokeuse has since been followed by thousands of followers.