PLATTE CITY, Mo. — Fifteen-year-old Alyssa Misemer wanted to look just right for her homecoming dance so she decided to get a tan.
“I was adamantly against her using a tanning bed because of the dangers of the UV rays,” said Dawn Misemer, mother.
So they decided on a sunless tan.
“Spray tan would be fine, it would be safe,” Dawn said.
Alyssa says she went to Sun Spa in Platte City.
“Since I had been there before and gotten it done, I thought that it’d be safe and fine,” she explained. “They didn’t have me sign anything, they just had me sign in, and I went back and had it done.”
Alyssa says she instantly started feeling itchy, and that night, hives started to break out. She says the pain got progressively worse, for two weeks she even had trouble sleeping.
“It was miserable,” she said. “I would just — from here down be covered in hives.”
What caused this bizarre reaction? Alyssa says she’s severely allergic to nuts, most severely to peanuts, but other nuts also create a dangerous reaction. Her mom says she found out the spray tan contained walnut oils.
“Right when I found out that it had walnut, the tan had walnut extract in it, I was terrified that I was going to die from it,” said Alyssa.
One doctor at Children’s Mercy says it’s rare to see a patient with this kind of reaction, but it is possible, and spray tans do differ. Some have carmel and others have nut oils in the bronzer.
Alyssa and her mom say now they want others to know about the potential dangers.
“I don’t want anyone out there to have to go through the same thing that I did because it was extremely miserable and definitely not something I’ll ever forget,” Alyssa warned.
Alyssa believes the formula for the spray tan must have changed since the previous time she’d gone to Sun Spa. The Misemers tell Fox 4 they’ve tried to get Sun Spa to post a warning about the spray tan, but they say they’ve heard the tanning salon won’t post warnings about the dangers their tanning spray may cause.
Fox 4 tried two times Tuesday to talk to the owner of Sun Spa to find out more about this situation. The efforts to reach the owner weren’t returned.
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