A three-year-old child has baffled doctors with a rare illness that causes her to cry tears of blood.
Ahana Begum, a resident of Falaknuma, is being treated at a city-based private hospital for ‘Hematidrosis’, which causes her to bleed from multiple sites. Doctors treating her said the bleeding occurs in episodes and is triggered by stress. The girl’s condition came to light after her parents appealed to Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mehmood Ali. “We have treated hematidrosis before but Ahana’s case is severe. We did not believe it but when we evidenced it we realised the severity. Before treatment, the episodes would occur once a day but now the frequency has reduced to about once a week. Stress triggers the episodes,” said Dr. S. Sirisha Rani, consultant Pediatric Heamotologist and Oncologist at Rainbow Hospitals. “In the recent past, she has begun bleeding from eyes. The blood is mixed with other bodily fluid. We matched the blood group of the oozing blood with that of the girl to confirm if it was really blood,” Dr. Rani said.
She added that the girl’s condition is unlike other cases of the illness as she has blood pressure fluctuations and also becomes unconscious which sometimes requires hospital treatment. “Often the girl recovers by herself but sometimes she needs treatment. Less frequently when the bleeding is severe, she needs blood transfusion,” the doctor informed.
