Woman Claims To Be Allergic To Water

[Dawgfaninca]

 

I recently came across this cheesy article about a girl named ''Heidi Falconer'' who is so severely allergic to water (and was born with it, apparently!) that if she gets just a teeny drop of water in her throat, she could die of severe shock. Here's the article - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thieves-shatter-allergy-girls-life-1317690.html

 

She also says she cannot drink water or she will die. Instead she has to drink milk and orange juice, ''which because of their chemical composition bring her no harm''.

 

Yet I've heard that saliva, the stuff that's constantly coating your throat and filling up your mouth every minute, is 99.5% water (in that 99.5% of the molecules are H2O molecules). However, she is not having a constant allergic reaction despite this. There are also other articles about her for instance her celebrating her 21st birthday - https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/water-allergy-girl-reaches-21st-58672

 

This is not consistent at all with ''Aquagenic Urticaria'' which is a skin condition only and it is not an allergy so this is something different, more to do with water on the skin reacting with a compound, and then producing an irritant. It does not affect drinking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquagenic_urticaria However ''Heidi'' here claims that she can go into anaphylactic shock is she even ingests water. Aquagenic Urticaria does not affect persons with it when they ingest water, unlike the case I'm referring to here where she says she not only reacts if it touches her skin but also if she swallows it.

 

What are your thoughts on this? It also seems as if others have followed her lead as there were a plethora of other women claiming they were ''so allergic'' to water that they could not drink water without their throats closing up - this woman says she has to drink diet cola/pepsi to survive - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1172102/Mothers-allergy-water-means-drink-bathe-wipe-away-sons-tears.html some others were named Rachel Warwick and Barbara Ward.

 

Is it possible for the H2O molecule to even be an allergen?