Twinkle Dwivedi, 13, puzzled doctors: she loses blood every day, although there are no wounds on her body
The unhappy girl bleeds daily through her eyes, ears, nose and even her skin pores. Most of all, blood appears on the face and in the places of sweat glands - on the feet, on the neck, under the armpits - but, in principle, it can flow from any part of the child's body for no apparent reason. Sometimes, while the girl is asleep, her whole body is covered overnight with a layer of blood, which dries up by morning. And sometimes blood begins to flow from the scalp, right along the hairline.
“At these moments, I can directly feel my head getting heavy,” Twinkle says. - And if the blood comes from the eyes, they turn red and hurt when I rinse them after bleeding.
It all started when Twinkle was 12. Bleeding started spontaneously, just as spontaneously ended and could occur from 5 to 20 times a day.
- I was very scared. I remember how my school blouse turned red all over, and the other children stopped playing with me,”Twinkle reports to the Daily Mail. - I cried every time it happened.
Then Twinkle with her family lived in India, and superstitious neighbors decided that the girl was cursed. Since then, she could not even go out into the street calmly: insults and threats rushed in pursuit. Twinkle was escorted out of school, but not taken to another, and the girl had to study at home.
But this is only half the trouble. Not a single doctor in Twinkle's homeland could prescribe a sufficiently effective treatment for her. The only procedure that the girl has to undergo regularly is a blood transfusion. Otherwise, she simply would not have survived this year.
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Parents even turned to the priests, but even they gave up. Prayer doesn't help either.
“We are not superstitious people,” says Twinkle’s 42-year-old mother, “but we got so desperate that we visited all the temples, mosques and churches we found. Nobody can help us.
Failures in India forced Twinkle's parents to move her to Britain, where, however, they again had to close the doorstep of more than one clinic. British doctors did not confirm the diagnosis of Indian colleagues (a special type of blood incoagulability in severe form). They noted that the girl's blood was too pale and thin, however, they assumed that the girl was suffering from type 2 von Willebrand disease. This is the theory put forward by Dr. Drew Provan of Barts Hospital in London.
According to him, unlike the previous diagnosis, this one gives Twinkle hope for a possible recovery. The fact is that Indian doctors suggested that Twinkle's blood lacks special blood-thickening particles. Proven says that the matter is different: there is too little substance in the girl's blood called von Willebrand factor; it helps the blood plates to attach to the walls of damaged vessels, and blood clotting. This is, of course, a serious illness, but it can be cured, Proven reassures.
However, treatment for this condition is very, very expensive. The Twinkle family doesn't have that kind of money. Now the girl's parents continue to go to different doctors.
