In this video, we take a look at 11 people with some of the weirdest medical conditions
on the planet, including tree-like hands, an allergy to water and plenty of bemused
and frustrated sufferers.
Katelyn Thornley
12-year-old Texan girl Katelyn Thornley is particularly blessed.
Not because she's especially fortunate, but because she literally can't stop sneezing.
She sneezes up to 12,000 times every single day, which adds up to one involuntary nose
trumpet every 3 to 6 seconds - or ten to twenty every minute.
The mucus mystery began just after she left one of her clarinet lessons, so she initially
assumed it was some sort of allergy or reaction to the instrument.
But it soon got a lot worse, and there have been no reports of it stopping since.
Speaking to reporters about the condition, she said ''I'm constantly in pain with my
abdomen, my legs are weak, I can barely eat.''
Her only respite is in sleep, when she drifts off after taking some Benadryl, but no-one
is able to diagnose the root of the problem.
Her parents have taken Katelyn to six physicians, but no-one can work out the solution - though
all have confirmed that it's not an illness or an allergy.
Some have speculated that the violent and snot-snuffed problem might be a tic or a short-circuit
in her brain, which incorrectly sends a misleading signal to her nostrils.
Katelyn is unable to attend school and can no longer play the clarinet.
And she even claims that she sneezes in her dreams.
Haley Smith
Haley Smith, from Alabama USA, had a pretty strong reaction to her parents divorce.
Sadness?
Check.
Depression?
Check.
Thinking she's a corpse?
Wait, what?
Yep, for three years after the torrid divorce of her parents, Haley began obsessively watching
horror movies and visiting graveyards and sincerely believed that she was dead.
She told journalists "I'd fantasise about having picnics in graveyards and I'd spend
a lot of time watching horror films because seeing the zombies made me feel relaxed, like
I was with family."
But there were some bright sides - she also confessed that she ''decided to eat whatever
she wanted because she couldn't put on weight if she was dead.''
She was eventually diagnosed with Cotard's Syndrome, which is linked to other mental
illnesses such as bipolar and depression, and causes sufferers to think that either
they - or parts of their body - are dead.
Past victims have starved themselves to de ath in the mistaken belief that they no longer
need to eat.
She eventually healed herself by finding a boyfriend and watching Disney movies.
Seriously.
She later told reporters:
"Being a corpse was the most bizarre experience," which sounds like understatement at its best.
Abul Bandajar
Bangladeshi Abul Bandajar was dubbed the 'Tree Man' after, at the age of 15, he started to
develop bark-like warts and growths on his hands.
His super rare condition, known as Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis, causes huge warts, tumours
and growths to develop on the body, partially due to a massive increase in keratin, the
substance responsible for the growth of fingernails and toenails.
Speaking to journalists while suffering from the disease, he said ''it makes me so uncomfortable,
restless, that I cannot stand or sit in one place.
It just drives me crazy.''
He is one of only four people in the entire world who has ever been diagnosed with the
disease, and also has the lumpy lesions on his feet.
Abul recently travelled to the Bangladeshi capital of Dakar to receive surgery on his
hands and feet.
After more than 16 operations, he is now able to feed himself and hold his daughter.
He still has many lumps and bumps, but his condition is much better than before.
He and his family lived in the hospital for over a year while he underwent extensive and
lengthy treatment.
Speaking from his hospital bed after the surgery was completed, he told reporters ''I never
thought I would ever be able to hold my kid with my hands.
Now I feel so much better.
I can hold my daughter in my lap and play with her.
I can't wait to go back home.''
Brad Williams
Brad Williams is known as 'Memory Man', thanks to his uncanny ability to recall and remember
the exact details of any given day of his 60-year long life.
Give him any event, personal or public, and he can recall the exact date, year and day
of when it happened.
And perhaps even more crazy - if you give him a random date, he can accurately give
you a load of details on what happened on that day, including world events, political
happenings, sporting results and more.
He is one of less than thirty people in the world who has been diagnosed with Hyperthymesia,
the name given to those in possession of a profoundly detailed memory.
He has appeared on TV numerous times and published a book about his abilities.
And he never forgets where he left his keys.
Reuben Nsemoh
16 year-old Reuben Nsemoh, From Georgia USA, was playing soccer when he suffered a near-fatal
concussion.
He was kicked in the head, and stopped breathing many times before being placed into a coma
for several days.
And this is where the weird bit starts.
He allegedly awoke from the coma speaking - and only speaking - perfect Spanish, a language
which, before, he could not speak fluently.
For the first few days after waking up, he claimed that every time he tried to speak
English, he felt as if he was going to have a seizure.
Over the course of the following few days, he slowly regained his ability to speak English
- and his Spanish gradually dwindled.
Although scientists don't know the cause of this bizarre lingo phenomenon, they believe
it might actually be the brain readjusting to the use of language.
This makes the sufferer produce sounds and speech patterns which they typically wouldn't.
In turn, bemused listeners mistake this for full fluency when the sufferer is in fact
just speaking in a different accent with some foreign words thrown in.
That said, no-one is sure of the truth.
No bueno.
Mohammad Kaleem
In 2015, 8-year old Mohammad Kaleem underwent surgery to deal with a crazy condition which
left him with the biggest hands in the world.
His massive fingers, arms and hands caused some nosey neighbours in his local Indian
village to cruelly consider him to be a demon or evil spirit.
His uncle told reporters 'There is no treatment for this boy.
He is a devil's child.
This is just because his parents must have committed a wrong deed at some point in their
life.'
Doctors, who aren't so superstitious, diagnosed him with localised gigantism, a condition
which causes certain parts of the body to swell and grow to colossal proportions.
Before he was taken for surgery, his hands weighed almost fifteen pounds each and his
palms measured thirteen inches in length.
He was unsurprisingly unable to perform a number of everyday tasks such as dressing,
bathing and eating.
Throughout his young life, he was bullied by his peers, and was denied admission to
school in fear that he would scare other children with his gigantic hands and fingers.
The surgery has been a partial success, and has largely reduced the size of his hands,
though they are still vastly bigger than they should be.
Alexandra Allen
Utah girl Alexandra Allen first knew something was up when she developed itchiness, hives
and severe dryness after splashing around in a swimming pool on a family vacation.
Upon having the same reaction after swimming in a lake, she was convinced there might be
a problem.
After a few years of suffering from these symptoms every time she touched water, she
decided it was time to see a doctor.
The diagnosis session involved sitting in a tub of the stuff, which Alexandra claims
felt ''like being tortured''.
Doctors eventually realised that she suffers from Aquagenic Urticaria, which is - in plain
terms - an allergy to water, and has been diagnosed only around fifty times in the history
of the planet.
The condition usually starts around puberty, and affects females more often than males,
though doctors can't work out the reason it occurs.
Some speculate that the sweat glands see the water as an intruder.
Alexandra now has to keep her contact with water to an absolute minimum, a laborious
lifestyle which includes quick and infrequent showers and no humid weather.
So unfortuantly, no more family vaccations.
Abigail and Brittany Hensel
Minnesota twins Abigail and Britanny Hensel are a little different to most siblings.
That's because they're literally attached to each other.
They completely share a body, but they each have their own head.
Although they have to divide their one body between two people, they each have their own
heart, stomach, spine and lungs.
Each twin controls their own half of their body, so any activity involving coordination,
such as walking, swimming, running, driving or eating, requires the cooperation of both
twins.
When learning to drive, each girl had to take a separate test from the other, which means
that they both, in effect, had to take the test twice.
They also have distinct personalities, with different likes and dislikes in the worlds
of food, fashion, friends and men - which must make sex a little awkward.
These differences also mean that one twin can catch an illness without the other suffering
from it.
When they were born, their parents were offered the chance to separate them, but they decided
against it, as it would most likely have resulted in the de ath of one, or both, girls.
The girls did, however, have one rudimentary central third arm removed in an operation.
They graduated from university in 2012.
They once had their own show on American TV channel TLC and have also appeared on Oprah
Winfrey.
They are now teachers.
And it's not all bad - their lucky students get the help of two tutors.
Deepak Paswaan
Young Indian boy Deepak Paswaan underwent surgery in 2010 to remove, from his body,
the limbs of his parasitic conjoined twin.
Though less ominous than it sounds, he was born with the semi-developed arms and legs
of a conjoined twin growing out of the very centre of his chest, leaving him with the
grand total of eight limbs.
This condition occurs when, in the womb of the mother, one unhealthy twin attaches itself
to the healthier sibling in an unsuccessful attempt to survive.
Before the successful surgery, many superstitious neighbours saw him as something inhuman, with
some claiming he was a god, and others swearing he was borne of the devil.
Some would stone or hit him upon seeing him, while others would make pilgrimages to his
village, believing he was an incarnation of the eight-limbed Hindu god Vishnu.
His impoverished family appealed publicly for money to help with the surgery, which
they were lucky enough to receive.
Before the surgery, his father said, ''When he was born, the doctors said he wouldn't
live long but here he is and apart from how he looks he is very healthy.''
Deepak himself told reporters, ''I am tired of being different.
I just want to live normally.''
Since the operation, it seems that he now he does.
Shadot Hossain
47-year old Bangladeshi father Shadot Hossain is covered from head to toe with hundreds
of bulbous growths and tumours.
Doctors believe he is suffering from neurofibromatosis, which causes tumours to grow along the nerves
on a person's body.
He noticed his first tumour at the age of thirteen, and things have gotten progressively
worse since then.
The tumours cause him massive pain - which means that he is unable to wear clothes on
his top half, needs help to use the toilet, and he often cannot feed himself.
Even excess chewing causes his neck to hurt.
His condition may soon cause him to become blind.
Speaking to reporters about his condition, he said ''The moment anyone sees me they try
to move away from me.
The kids when they see me they just freak out and start running.
I cannot go outside because children are afraid of me.''
He also added ''They call me 'Monster.'
I wasn't always in this condition.
I was handsome in my young age.''
His 12-year old son Abdullah is also afraid of him.
Shadot said ''Nowadays Abdullah doesn't talk to me.
I understand why he feels like that.''
Because of his condition, he is unable to work, and therefore unable to raise money
for surgery.
He is trying to do so via a charity drive.
Doctors say that they have never before seen someone in such an extreme condition.
Thanks for watching!