- Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome
- Persistent hiccups
- Inability to open eyes
- Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome
- Resistance to cold
- Cold urticaria
- Long-term insomnia
- Inability to forget
- Seizure-induced memory loss
- Foreign Accent Syndrome
- Music-induced seizures
- Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy
There are common illnesses that people encounter in their daily lives like the flu, and in the everyday world, other medical conditions like cancer and heart disease find their way into people’s lives. The medical profession always has its hands full with diagnoses and treatments and cures. While many diseases are still being researched for clues as to their development and treatment, there are some that are so odd and out of the ordinary that they leave the medical community somewhat baffled.
The medical unit at ABC News, specifically reporters Radha Chitale and Dan Childs, took the time to compile twelve of the rarest and most perplexing medical conditions to be seen in recent years. There are no known cures or treatments because the conditions are so extraordinary, though doctors are on the cases to find the reasons behind these odd symptoms and conditions.
Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome is one that has found itself a name from medical professionals who have found more than one case of the condition. Carla Sosenko, however, has been the most public about her syndrome that is the result of a rare congenital disorder that produces deformities from excessive bone growth and fat deposits in different parts of the body. But the real danger comes in the pain and threats of blood clots, seizures, and blindness.
Another is Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome, which finds its victims constantly on the brink of orgasm by no wish of their own. Foreign Accent Syndrome plagues people like Rosemarie Dore, who spoke with a different accent than her own after a stroke. And Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy is a condition that causes people, mostly children, to feel no pain, which is especially dangerous when the body allows anything to happen to it - sometimes self-induced injuries - without indicating that there is pain because of it. Gabby Gingras, an 8-year old, is one of the children afflicted with the condition, and she now wears protective gear after having lost all of her teeth and an eye because of her own inability to differentiate between proper body care and injury.
Other conditions have no name because there are so few cases that doctors have not yet been able to identify the problem in order to identify symptoms and causes. Christopher Sands is a 25-year old who started hiccupping in February of 2007 and has never fully stopped, as any lull in the action will ultimately find it coming back. Natalie Adler of Australia has a condition that causes her eyes to shut and not open under any circumstances for up to three days at a time. And Stacey Gayle has epileptic seizures that are prompted by songs, and though part of her brain was removed to try to alleviate the condition, in a world filled with music the young woman has yet to be cured of her tendencies.
Some people have been found to have odd reactions to cold weather. Wim Hof of the Netherlands has a resistance to cold that he has come to exploit in attempts to gain popularity and accomplish tasks, such as climbing Mount Everest in shorts. On the other side of that coin are patients that suffer from cold urticaria, an allergic reaction to cold temperatures that cause skin conditions and sufferers run the risk of seizures and shock reactions.
The other conditions pointed out by ABC News included a 4-year old boy named Rhett Lamb who cannot sleep, though surgery has been performed on his brain in an attempt to correct the defect. Brad Williams is a 52-year old who cannot forget a single moment of life experiences, while there are people on the opposite end of the spectrum whose entire memory disappears in an instant as a result of a grand mal seizure.
Cases like the ones described are rare but can be severe enough to cripple the victims and severely inhibit the quality of their lives. Worse, most in the medical profession are baffled and often dedicate years of research to discovering why a particular condition occurs.