Helen Stephens, la donna con i sintomi dell’incredibile Hulk (Foto)

LONDRA, Inghilterrsa – Helen Stephens é una donna con tre figli affetta da una rara condizione medica che provoca pulsazioni, gonfiori ed irriggidimenti nei muscoli. Un pò come succede nei fumetti all’ incredibile Hulk.

La malattia ha costretto Helen a letto per 14 anni ma ultimamente la sua condizione é peggiorata e i dottori che la seguono sono preoccupati perché non riescono a capire come aiutarla.

La donna crede che gli spasmi, paragonabili al dolore provocato da dei punteruoli ardenti quando toccano la pelle, possano un giorno toglierle la vita. “Ogni giorno mi sveglio con le stesse sensazioni. È come vivere in una bara ed ogni volta che mi si irrigidiscono i muscoli mi gonfio come l’incredibile Hulk,” ha detto Helen al Daily Mail.  

La malattia di Helen é talmente rara che un canale inglese ha deciso di fare un documentario che racconta le sue vicissitudini. Per anni, i dottori hanno pensato che Ms Stephens soffrisse della sindrome dell’uomo rigido ma i test finora non sono riusciti a confermarlo.

• Daily Mail

But recently a more sensitive test, which can pick up even trace amounts of the the antibodies responsible for the condition, has become available. In the documentary, Ms Stephens visits consultants at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham as well experts at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to undergo eight days of rigorous testing. Last year Ms Stephen’s spasms caused her muscles to build up and swell so much that she put on five stone and her neck swelled by four inches.

The mystery condition can flare up at any moment and an episode can last anything from a few minutes to over an hour.
She said: ‘When I have a bad attack I swell up like the Hulk. I look enormous and I even call myself the Hulk, Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or Rambo. I’m like a bodybuilder.’ lthough it has never been proven, Ms Stephens blames a car accident in 1999 for the development of her condition. Within a short space of time, the paralysing shudders left her unable to wash, eat or bathe without help and for the past seven years she has been confined to a darkened room.

She said: ‘Everyday I wake up to the same thing. It’s like being in a coffin. Anything can trigger me to become stiff – the cold and stress are the big ones.’ Ms Stephens said that many people simply believed that she was a hypochondriac when she first sought medical help. But in 2004, specialists diagnosed her with Stiff Person Syndrome and have since managed her symptoms with tranquilisers.

In the documentary her consultant explained that most people require just 10mg of diazepam to make them relaxed enough to undergo an uncomfortable procedure such as an endoscopy, but that Ms Stephens is on 30mg, four times a day. This, he said, is enough to knock out 12 people. Ms Stephens said: ‘My muscles tear at the same time and they increase in mass meaning my weight balloons. ‘If I don’t get an injection of diazepam quickly enough my whole body stiffens, leaving me unable to have any treatment because a needle will just snap.

Two weeks after undergoing testing, Ms Stephens receives her results and the documentary finally reveals whether or not Ms Stephens suffers with Stiff Person Syndrome. They say that even if they are not able to confirm what is wrong with her, the results will be helpful because it means that they can investigate other causes of the condition and try out other treatments.