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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Lucy Skoulding

Woman's face left unrecognisable after allergic reaction to seafood sparks A&E trip

Shocking before-and-after images show how a woman's face was left puffed-up after she had a serious allergic reaction to seafood.

Amanda Nicandio, 22, went viral on social media - with her video getting 5.5 million views - after she shared images of her unrecognisable face following the ordeal.

The student - who hails from Belo Horizonte, Brazil - said she ate prawns at a bar on Copacabana Beach on a trip to Rio de Janeiro and suffered the allergic reaction.

She was advised by an employee of the bar where she'd eaten the seafood to go to A&E, where she spent the night.

Amanda said she was afraid that her face would not return to how it was before.

Amanda went viral on social media after she shared images of her unrecognisable face following the ordeal (Newsflash)

But she had some medicine and she was also given a vaccine before being told she could leave hospital despite her face still being swollen.

She said at the time that "everyone thought I had been punched" and spent the rest of her trip wearing sunglasses to try to cover the reaction.

The event happened in late 2021, but Amanda only took to social media to post about it on May 25 this year, and the images quickly racked up millions of views.

Amanda said her story could serve as a warning for seafood lovers to be aware of the risks (@amandanicandio/Newsflash)

The images show how Amanda's face was left so swollen following the allergic reaction that she was unable to even open her left eye.

After the images did the rounds, Amanda said: "I'd eaten prawns before and nothing had ever happened - until that day.

"The doctors were unable to explain definitively what had happened. They just said it was the prawns and that was it."

The images show how Amanda's face was left so swollen following the allergic reaction that she was unable to even open her left eye (@amandanicandio/Newsflash)
Amanda did her own research and found out prawns have a substance "you can eat 500 times" and be fine but react badly to it on any given occasion (@amandanicandio/Newsflash)

But Amanda did her own research and found out prawns have a substance "you can eat 500 times" and be fine but react badly to it on any given occasion.

She clarified: "The prawns I ate weren't bad, they were super tasty." But she added: "I don't plan to eat them any more because it was a really bad experience."

She told Newsflash: "These days I avoid all seafood - not just prawns - as I'm scared I'll go through a similar situation again."

On her viral fame, she said: "I'd never imagined that this could go so viral."

She added that her story could serve as a warning for seafood lovers to be aware of the risks, stating: "It could happen to anyone."

Thankfully, Amanda's face made a full recovery.

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