With allergies to almost everything in the outside world, an Adelaide woman has been confined to a single sealed, toxin-free room – earning her the nickname ‘woman in the bubble’.
After being exposed to termite spray when she was 15, Amelia Hill developed debilitating allergic type reactions to almost everything, which results in unbearable physical pain, rashes, fatigue and can even leave her unconscious.
With such intense and far-ranging allergies uncommon, Ms Hill was dismissed as a hypochondriac for years. It wasn’t until she was 33 that she diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Electrohypersensitivity.
Some of the triggers include fragrances, cleaning products, dust, mould and even electrical appliances like computers and WiFi technology, according to Ms Hill.
“The list of triggers can be vast, perplexing and seemingly never-ending,” she writes on her blog.
After being stripped of her plentiful triggers, Ms Hill was restricted to a single room on a tiled floor and a small fold out bed in her bathroom while she spoke to people through a glass wall and her mum became her full-time carer.
“It’s been a stark, austere existence,” she said.
The blogger’s medical needs are countless but as she is unable to access hospitals without severely impacting her health, doctors are forced to come to her home – including dentists performing surgery in her kitchen.
Despite isolating herself from the outside world and living on a diet of just seven rotating foods, the blogger’s condition has severely deteriorated.
Ms Hill’s friend Jenny Buttaccio has set up a GoFundMe page after concerns for her well-being hit a critical peak.
“She can no longer hold her body upright, and her respiratory muscles are so weak, making it is very difficult for her to breathe 24/7,” Ms Buttaccio said.
“No one is sure why she has deteriorated so dramatically.”
Ms Buttaccio says the blogger has already sold all of her furniture and many possessions to fund her complicated and exorbitant medical costs, which regularly force her to choose between food and medical expenses.
“Amelia confided in me that she has started to lose hope, and she’s feeling scared for her life. She doesn’t want this to be the end of her story,” Ms Buttaccio writes.
“She still has so much more to give.”
The page has already raised over $12,000 for the woman in the bubble.
