‘My whole face just turned purple’: Missouri teen goes blind, and it’s a mystery to doctors

Twice in the past 18 months, Jordyn Walker has dealt with painful facial swelling and an illness that has taken away her senses and left doctors baffled.

Starting in July 2017, shortly after returning from a cruise with her family, the teen from Smithville, Mo., started having stomach pains and bloody stools, according to WDAF.

“It just went haywire from there, and everything started swelling,” she told WDAF.

The illness left Jordyn, now 15, with bleeding from her eyes and ears, KMBC reported. Jordyn also lost her senses of taste and smell, and despite scores of tests, doctors couldn’t determine a cause.

After Jordyn improved enough to return home, her mother said multiple visits to specialists left the family with no answers.

“We were searching and were told it was a one-in-a-million case and probably would never happen again,” Kendyll Walker told KMBC.

Except it did. Nearly 17 months after the initial illness, Jordyn had to head to the emergency room on Dec. 12, 2018.

Her mother wrote on a crowdfunding site that Jordyn had dealt with 10 days of severe stomach pain and vomiting.

“My whole face just turned purple and giant with blood,” Jordyn told KDAF.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "My whole face just turned purple and giant with blood," Jordyn told KDAF.

While waiting at the emergency room, the swelling returned, and this time, the illness took Jordyn’s vision. During a 16-day stay at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Jordyn had two surgeries in an attempt to reduce the swelling behind her eyes.

“There are no answers, nothing you can do,” Kendyll Walker told WDAF.

Surgeons removed part of her orbital bones to relieve the swelling, but doctors say Jordyn is now permanently blind — and still, doctors can’t pin down a diagnosis.

“I just want an answer. I just want to know why it happened,” Jordyn told KMBC.

According to the crowdfunding site, Jordyn returned home on Dec. 29, but the family plans to visit the Mayo Clinic soon in hopes of getting answers.

Jordyn’s family has started a Facebook page to post updates and ask for funding, and the teen who enjoyed photography and journalism said she’s determined to remain positive, telling WDAF: “I’m not going to let this stop me.”