Woman suffering from rare disease sheds 'blood tears'

A 22-year-old woman in Kota is suffering from a rare disease which leads to shedding of 'blood tears' from the eyes instead of saline water.

Doctors at a government hospital in Kota said Lakshaya Bais has been traced out as the third patient suffering from the rarest of rare disease.

Professor in medicines at the government-run Maharao Bheem Singh (MBS) hospital, Dr Manoj Saluja, who is currently treating Lakshaya said, "it is for the first time in his professional career that he has seen a such patient and claimed Lakshaya is the third patient traced so far suffering from this rare disease of 'spontaneous bleeding through eyes'."

The other two were traced earlier in Lucknow and Calcutta, and 'Lakshaya is the third case reported after the two in medical literature', he claimed. "Shedding blood tears is a 'blood clotting disorder' and 'an inheritance defect of the body'", Dr Saluja said, adding 'detection tests of the rare disease are very costly and facilities for them are not easily available.'

The woman's father Ratan Singh, SHO at Mahila police station Kota said, "the rare disease first came to light on May 25 this year when Lakshaya began bleeding through eyes or shedding blood tears while studying in Udaipur." She becomes unconscious while shedding blood tears for some time, he said.

Later, she was taken to several hospitals for treatment including AIMS in Delhi and several others in Udaipur, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Singh said, adding "but the doctors there remained clueless and surprised. The reports of the medical tests in these hospitals confirmed the patient as 'normal'", he further said.

Singh also said that his daughter recovered for a while but the disease resumed again on Tuesday following which she was rushed to MBS hospital.