Amazing People Who Can’t Feel Pain:

Some Amazing People Can’t Feel Any Pain at All

Let’s have a look at the amazing case of the girl who can’t feel pain, and others like her who suffer from congenital insensitivity to pain. Ever since they were born, these people have not been able to feel physical pain… they can have bleeding open wounds and never feel a thing, or they can even starve to death cause they’ll never have stomach pains, or any other pain at all. You may think that’s pretty cool, but it’s extremely dangerous and could lead to severe, life threatening problems! Let’s check out their stories.

1. Ashlyn Blocker The Girl Who Can’t Feel Pain

Ashlyn Blocker was diagnosed with congenital insensitivity to pain before her first birthday, and despite all of the doctors’ bad prognosis, she is now 12 years old and she managed to beat all odds. People who are diagnosed with this disease barely make it passed the first 2 years of life, let alone survive childhood and it’s troubles. Since they can not feel pain, they can’t alert their parents of the pain or sufferance and they ultimately die from life threatening, but potentially treatable illnesses.

Ashlyn was born with a congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), a ailment that messes with the way signals travel from the central nervous system to the rest of the body. While growing up, the girls never experienced any pain. As a baby she did not cry at diaper rashes, and she never even cried of hunger… The parents kept seeing the red flags, but it wasn’t only until her parents took her to the eye doctor to be treated for a rash when they discovered that she can sleep through the medical intervention:

“She had a big corneal abrasion across her eye. They were just astonished that she wasn’t in pain.”

The visit to the doctor made the parents seek further investigations which led to the diagnosis of CIPA (Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis), an extremely rare genetic disease that affects only about 100 people worldwide.

Ashlyn toddler years were the worst for her parents, cause she would bite herself, burn her hands, and getting herself into different troubles. And considering the rough times her parents had while their baby girl was growing up, they decided to start a camp for other families who have children that suffer from CIPA. Have a look at the pictures below with all of them together:

See a video of Ashlyn Blocker below, 

2. Brother And Sister Who Can’t Feel Pain

Vicki and Paul Waters had a hard time growing up… they didn’t throw toys around the room to get their parents’ attention, oh no, they would burn themselves, or even break their bones to get some attention, all because they can not feel pain!

Even though they were born one year apart, they both suffer from the same extremely rare disease… Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, a condition which prevents their nerves from recognizing physical distress. And they played this card very well, bending their fingers over backwards until they’d snap if they didn’t get what they wanted.

Bob and Christine, teh siblings’ parents tried their best to keep the brother and sister safe but accidents were inevitable.

“Every time I blinked they seemed to injure themselves. As a mother it was unbearable”

Luckily, they did a good job and the kids grew up, and they are still struggling with the challenges of not being able to feel pain. Check out a video of them below:

But how does CIPA work?

No, people who suffer from CIPA are not superheroes! CIPA is teh result of a genetic mutation which stops the formation of a special type of nerve cells, that are responsible for transmitting signals of pain, heat, and cold to the brain. CIPA patients can, however feel pressure. Overheating kills more than half of all children with CIPA before age 3, others pass away from appendicitis or other minor treatable diseases…. but for which they do not report the signals.