A bizzarre congenital disease is said to have shrunk a woman to TWO FEET in ten years.
Due to the rare condition, Kunti Kumari, 25, has weak limbs that stretch and bend.
Now she spends her day lying on a cot, chatting with her mother and staring at the ceiling when she has no company.
Her distressed mother, Tilakwa Devi, 60, can’t stop weeping seeing her youngest daughter’s unusual condition which she says makes her look like a “corpse”.
Kunti, who lives in an Indian village, has been bed-ridden for the past eight years. She is extremely weak and depends on her widowed mother for every need.
Tilakwa said: “She was a normal girl with healthy limbs but when she turned a teenager, her bones started weakening and she struggled to walk.
“She would limp a little but gradually she lost all strength and started shrinking.
“Within eight years of this mysterious disease, she completely lost strength and got bound to bed rest.”
Kunti, whose older siblings – two brothers and one sister – are unaffected, had undergone surgery to treat her left leg that had become very flimsy.
But after a month of relief, her condition started deteriorating and she lost strength in all her limbs.
Kunti said: “I was always weak and could never run fast. I was a slow walker and as I grew up, I had to push my left leg.
“This is when my mother took me to a doctor for treatment. The bone specialist operated on my left leg but after a month, I couldn’t move the leg.”
The mum and daughter are now in hope of a miracle that could cure the condition and bring Kunti back on her feet.
They are also getting help from other villagers who are offering money and organising appointments with doctors in bigger cities.
The mother-of-four said: “We do not have money to get advanced medical treatment. Whatever little I had, I gave it for her first surgery but now I have no money.
“Even managing two meals a day is an uphill task for us.
“But now with the help of some villagers we are hoping to go to the city and meet some doctors. We are still short of money, so let us see what God has kept in store for us.”
Dr Satyendra Singh, Civil Surgeon, Chatra, who was informed about the girl’s condition by villagers, believes Kunti is suffering from a rare bone disease.
He said:
“This looks like a severe case of Osteogenesis Imperfecta. It is a rare congenital disease where the bones starts weakening and due to low density, they start shrinking. It is not a completely curable disease but with medication, she can be given some relief.”
