Blisters cause fingerprint woes

Sandra lives with a painful skin condition that causes scars and blisters and has wiped out her fingerprints, making it difficult for her to get a new ID card

IT’S something most of us take for granted: you press your thumb or index finger onto a pad of ink or small scanner and make your unique mark. These days this kind of identification opens many doors – new ID cards, driver’s licences, hi-tech office doors and personal admin systems at banks all require your fingerprints for issuing and admission purposes. But what do you do when there are no detectable whorls on the pads at the end of your fingers? It can be a problem, as Sandra Horne of Athlone, Cape Town, well knows.

She suffers from a rare skin condition that has not only wiped out her fingerprints but robbed her of her hair, eyebrows and lashes. She’s also covered in scars left by large painful blisters that constantly flare up.

Sandra (38) is wearing a bright blue beanie when we meet her, a big blister visible on her neck and smaller ones on her hands. It’s difficult not to stare but she just smiles – she’s used to people’s responses when they see her for the first time.

“It’s challenging but I am who I am,” she says. “I got to know myself this way and I’ve learnt to adapt in the world.”

Sandra was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa dystrophy (EB) when she was two months old. The condition causes her skin to be extremely sensitive to heat, friction and pressure (see box).

When she was a baby doctors didn’t expect her to live long – but she was tougher than she looked.

“It’s my life journey, and I have to walk the path,” she says philosophically.

As she grew older and started coming into contact with ,pre objects, blisters formed on her fingertips.

Gradually, with the constant cycle of popping blisters and healing skin, her fingerprints were erased.

In March last year she applied for an ID card. She already had an ID book but felt she needed a card to keep up with the times.

When she applied for her green book she had to submit an affidavit explaining her skin condition. For the ID card she initially received no guidance and was waiting in vain for weeks.

After a local newspaper reported on her health condition and home affairs struggles, Cape Town company Bytes System Integration, which specialises in information and communication technologies, offered to help Sandra for free.

The company used advanced technol-