Story highlights An allergic reaction to an antibiotic sent Yaasmeen Castanada to a hospital burn unit 
 
 "It has just spiraled into a nightmare," her aunt told CNN affiliate KABC 
 
 A doctor says the teen's prognosis is good, but she's in critical condition 
 
 (CNN) It started with a sore throat on Thanksgiving and an antibiotic from a friend who wanted to help. 
 
 Now 19-year-old Yaasmeen Castanada is fighting for her life inside a California hospital's burn unit, suffering from an allergic reaction that's so severe she has large open wounds all over her body. 
 
 "It is heartbreaking, every day is a different look. Every day, she's like, shedding away. ... Overnight, it's a whole different person that you're looking at," Martha Hughes, Castanada's aunt, told CNN affiliate KABC. 
 
 Doctors diagnosed Castanada with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a rare disease that can be triggered by antibiotics or other medications. 
 
 "When she took the medication, she started having a hard time breathing, and she told her mom that her lips were burning, her throat, her eyes, they got so red that she couldn't talk. So she rushed her to the ER, and that's when they diagnosed her with the disease. And from there it has just spiraled to a nightmare," Hughes said. 
 
 Now Castanada, the mother of a 4-month-old, is in critical condition at the University of California, Irvine, burn center. 
 
 Her prognosis is good, even though the disease has a high mortality rate, according to Dr. Victor Joe, the center's director. 
 
 But the situation, Castanada's family says, has been devastating. 
 
 "Just unreal, just watching your daughter burn in front of you, literally, burn in front of you," her mother, Laura Corona, told KABC. "Every day, a new blister, a new burn, a new scar. And she's just, 'Mommy, I want to go home.' And I can't take her home. I can't put water on her lips." 
 
 Mom: 'Don't share medication' 
 
 On a website created to raise funds for Castanada's care, her mother said the harrowing ordeal began soon after her daughter took the medicine. 
 
 "A friend offered her an antibiotic pill that she had from a previous illness," Corona wrote. "She was thinking that it would help her. This would be the biggest mistake of her life." 
 
 Now, Corona says she's hoping to spread the word so others don't make the same mistake. 
 
 "Don't share medication. Don't give someone else your medication. Don't offer medication," she said. 
 
 She also advises parents to find out what their children are allergic to -- before it's too late. 
 
 Doctor: Reaction causing skin to separate 
 
 At first, doctors diagnosed Castanada with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which refers to a condition where between 10% and 30% of the skin on the body is affected, Joe said. Now she's experiencing Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, the diagnosis when more than 30% of the body is affected. Joe estimates that 65% of Castaneda's skin and mucus membranes have been affected. 
 
 The allergic reaction is causing layers of Castaneda's skin to separate, Joe said, creating lesions that grow into large open wounds. 
 
 "Patients can experience problems with taste, swallowing, eyesight and sexual functions can be affected. In Yaasmeen's case, we are particularly concerned because her eyes have been affected. This can cause scarring of the corneas, which could lead to permanent blindness," he said. "We are trying to prevent that from happening." 
 
 Photos on the fundraising website show Castanada lying in a hospital bed, with openings for her eyes cut from the bandages that cover her. 
 
 As part of her treatment for the disease, doctors have wrapped her body in a special dressing, Joe said. 
 
 "We have chosen to place a dressing that adheres to the open wound, which allows her skin to heal without having to remove the bandages to wash the wounds," he said. 
 
 Mortality for those suffering from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis can be as high as 25% in adults, but tends to be lower with early treatment, according to the Merck Manual. 
 
 Though it's uncommon, Joe said his hospital has treated around six cases in the past year, because the burn center has experience treating open wounds. 
 
 "This is very sobering. The fact that you can get a life-threatening situation from taking a medication. It can happen, and most people don't think twice about taking pills for things," Joe said. "In fact, most of the time you do have some sort of side reaction to medication, just not this severe." 
 
 After recovering from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, patients usually only have minor issues with their skin, such as dryness, Joe said. 
 
 "Hopefully new skin will come in," Corona told KABC. "I'm just there watching. All I can tell her is, "Hang on, hang on. It's almost over.'" ||||| A young woman is in intensive care after having an allergic reaction to her friend's medication that has caused her body to burn from the inside out."Heartbreaking, just unreal. Just watching your daughter burn in front of you, literally burn in front of you," said Laura Corona, the mother of 19-year-old Yaasmeen Castanada.Covered in bandages, Castanada fights for her life in the burn ward at UC Irvine Medical Center.The Cal State L.A. sophomore suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome."It can be considered a burn from the inside out because of mucosal involvement," said dermatologist Dr. Lawrence Matt.The teen took the medication on Thanksgiving because she had been sick. Less than 24 hours later, she was hospitalized and on a ventilator, her body breaking out in massive blisters as if she had been burned from head to toe.Corona says her daughter took the medication believing it would make her better, completely unaware it would be toxic to her body. She is warning others to be aware of the danger."First of all, don't share medication, don't give someone else your medication, don't offer medication," she said. "Another thing also, go get yourself checked out and your kids checked out, because you don't know what you're allergic to. You don't."The 19 year old, who has a 4-month-old daughter, is studying civil engineering. The family is devastated her life has taken such a dramatic turn.Corona has just one wish for her daughter this Christmas."For her not to suffer. That's all I want," she said.Castanada faces a long road to recovery, including extensive rehab. The family has set up a GoFundMe account. You can donate here: www.gofundme.com/YaasmeenCastanada ||||| This is Yassmeen Castanada's story ... .. 
 
 
 
 On Thanksgiving Yaasmeen was feeling ill. Common cold, sore throat. A friend offered her an antibiotic pill that her friend had from a previous illness. She was thinking that it would help her, but this would be the biggest mistake of her life. After taking the pill , Yaasmeen started experiencing burning in her throat, eyes and mouth. As the night went by, her eyes became blood shot red and the lining of her lips was already torn off. I rushed her to the ER . The dr's immediately diagnosed her with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Something I've never heard about. Immediately I googled Stevens Johnson's and I began to panic. In my mind I knew this couldn't happen to my baby, but deep down in the pit of my stomach was a terrible, terrible feeling. Within 4 days Yaasmeen's appearance was transformed. I watched my daughter's skin burn, blister, bubble, n peel off and there was nothing I could do about it. The pain and agony she was going through just tore my heart to pieces. She was transferred to UCIrvine's burn unit. On December 5th she has surgery to scrape the top portion of her body. She was wrapped in biobrane. 2days later the bottom portion of her body was scraped. As you can see in the photo, she was wrapped in bandages from hed to toe. My daughter was intubated so she couldn't communicate with me. i made sure i prayed over her daily, I spoke to her daily and reminded her that she had a daughter that loved her very much. Everyday i told her to fight for her life. Yaasmeens blood was infected and she has had 5 blood trasfusions. As we got closer to recovery, she had a set back. She was having a hard time breathing. After multiple exams of her trachea, they noticed her airway was closing so she had an emergency tracheotomy. she had her trach for 6months. There have been times where she had trouble breathing. She had another surgery in april to open her airway because it closed and the steriod injections didn't work. On my birthday June 18th she had surgery to reconstruct her trachea. She was able to sing happy birthday to me as soon as the anesthesia wore off. Best gift ever! Today 6/25 Yaasmeen had her stitches removed. Yay! Her left eye is very damaged, she will need a cornea transplant. Hopefully in 6-8 months when she is healthier we can face that surgery. As for now, she will just work on getting healthier and spending a lot of time with her daughter Khloe and return to CSULA! This whole expierence has taught me to never take my children for granted. I almost lost my daughter to 1 pill! She never smoke or drank, she is a good kid that was on the right path. I just can't understand why this happened the way it did. But we will not dwell in the past, She has goals and a bright future ahead of her. I thank all of you for your love, support and prayers for my daughter. *Please be careful with medications because an allergic reaction can happen to anyone. #prayforyaas 
 
 Help spread the word! Share Tweet 4.8k total shares total shares ||||| A 17-year-old Virginia boy is recovering after a giant hogweed plant left him with second- and third-degree burns to his face and arms. 
 
 Alex Childress was working at his summer landscaping job on Tuesday in Fredericksburg around 12 p.m. when he unknowingly chopped down a large hogweed, a dangerous plant with sap that can cause severe damage to the skin, according to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. 
 
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 Childress, of Spotsylvania County, says the plant fell onto his face, but he thought nothing of the incident and carried the cut weed away under his right arm to throw it away. That night, however, Childress says he knew something was wrong when he took a shower. 
 
 “I thought I just had sunburn, so I didn’t really pay any attention. Then I got in the shower and I started rubbing my face,” he recalls. “I thought it was just a little bit of skin at first, but then big chunks of my face were falling off.” 
 
 GO FUND ME 
 
 He showed his mother, a nurse at Richmond’s Virginia Commonwealth University, and she showed Childress a photo of a hogweed, asking if it had looked like the plant he cut down. Childress confirmed, and his mother, Christy, rushed him to Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center where doctors advised that he go to VCU’s burn center. 
 
 “It felt like wind-burn, like my skin was chapped,” he tells PEOPLE. “[Doctors] had me stand in the shower for an hour and a half, scrubbing my body with soap to bring the PH level down. I had hot water running over open wounds, that was probably the worst part. That or the burn treatment where they scraped off the dead skin.” 
 
 The noxious weed first appeared in the U.S. in 1917, according to TIME. When mixed with moisture and sunlight, its sap can cause severe skin and eye irritation including blindness, permanent scarring and painful blistering, according to the Department. 
 
 Hogweed plant Getty Images 
 
 Childress remained in the intensive care unit for two days before he returned home with ointments and instructions to care for his peeling, blistering skin. 
 
 “I have to change the bandages every day,” he says. “It’s painful. Every time I take the bandage off there’s drainage. My arm is bleeding because the skin is trying to heal. It’s more than half my face and from my wrist up to the top of my bicep on my right arm.” 
 
 He adds: “I can’t go out into the sun for anywhere from two to six months. My face could be sensitive to light for a year up to two years.” 
 
 Childress says the ordeal has put his life on pause. He says his scholarship to Virginia Tech’s Army ROTC is now in jeopardy due to medical disqualifications. His family started a GoFundMe page to cover medical expenses and cover college costs. 
 
 “I worked hard to get the scholarship,” he says. “When my face heals, I have to go through a whole medical waiver process to make sure they won’t pull my scholarship. It’s a possibility I won’t be able to [attend in the fall], so that’s been a real struggle for my family.” 
 
 Still, Childress is hopeful about his future, and says he’s speaking out about the ordeal to warn others about the harmful plant. 
 
 “I don’t want to go through this again. I’d like to bring awareness to everyone else so it doesn’t happen to other people.”
– In a case both bizarre and horrifying, a 19-year-old California woman is burning from the inside out. How that's possible: an allergic reaction. Yaasmeen Castanada, a 19-year-old Cal State LA sophomore and mother to a 4-month-old, was battling a sore throat on Thanksgiving, so she took a friend's antibiotic, reports CNN. She rapidly "started having a hard time breathing, and she told her mom that her lips were burning, her throat, her eyes, they got so red that she couldn't talk," says her aunt. Within 24 hours she was hooked up to a ventilator; she's now at the University of California, Irvine, burn center. Her initial diagnosis was known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, an allergic reaction that caused her skin's layers to part, resulting in open wounds. "It can be considered a burn from the inside out," a dermatologist tells ABC7. But as burn center director Dr. Victor Joe tells CNN, that disease refers to a condition that affects up to a third of the skin; roughly two-thirds of Castanada's skin is affected, and her condition is now called Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. Though the mortality rate for the diseases can reach as high as 25%, Joe believes she will survive. But he says "we are particularly concerned because her eyes have been affected. This can cause scarring of the corneas, which could lead to permanent blindness." Per a GoFundMe page set up by her family, Castanada has had surgeries since Friday on the top and bottom portions of her body in which skin was scraped to spur new growth. Joe calls the case "sobering" and notes that it's one of about half-a-dozen his unit has seen in the last year. (Last month, a peanut allergy killed a college student.)