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Rare Medical Condition Makes Man Shed Tears of Blood

by Savitha C Muppala on Oct 21 2013 11:57 PM

 Rare Medical Condition Makes Man Shed Tears of Blood
An extremely rare medical condition afflicting a 29-year-old man for the past seven years causes him to shed tears of blood from his eyes daily and this is the biggest hurdle in his work life.
Michael Spann has been crying tears of blood since the age of 22. Blood drips out from his mouth and nose as well.

Medically termed as haemolacria, or bloody tears, this condition is extremely rare and has no known cause.

"I get these really bad headaches, and along with the headaches I bleed from my eyes," "Any job I get I lose because my eyes start bleeding and they can't keep me on. Obviously, I can't be a waiter and work in any public thing because you are bleeding, Spann said. "

"He will start talking to someone, and his eyes will start filling up with blood," his mother, Peggy Spann said. "They haven't seen it before, and it will scare the living daylights out of them. It is very frustrating not to be able to treat or even get some kind of remission for it."

Ophthalmologist, Dr. James Fleming, of the University of Tennessee Health Science Centre's Hamilton Eye Institute in Memphis, offers an explanation of Spann’s condition.

"There probably is a cause, but it is a small tear duct that is only a millimetre or two or three in diameter. It's a tube. To get into that tube and examine that tube from one end to the other would cause scarring, and you could lose part of the tear duct. That's the dilemma that can cause problems, that we will leave someone with a permanent disability ", Dr Fleming said.

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Source-Medindia


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