A New Face
My mom is a doctor. She’s always diagnosing on the go, but she’ll only tell me. For example, she’ll whisper to me: “Look, that lady has thalassemia major, and the guy she’s with has thyroid problems, and the girl across from them has some suspicious-looking bruises. Could be purpura…and he….he’s just fat.”
She is also completely unaware that she does this. On one occasion, she correctly identified someone as having thalassemia and was able to warn them to get it checked out.
There’s a reason why this was so incredibly impressive—because, as all people with knowledge of thalassemia are aware, it is almost impossible to spot. In some types of this condition, there are no facial symptoms. However, some types of thalassemia lead to somewhat characteristic facial structures.
There are articles online that explain some of them. Ultimately, you cannot do a good diagnosis from just looking at someone, especially for a hematological disease, but there are certainly clues.
But my mom somehow managed to do it. Shout out to all the thalassemia patients and their family members out there! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Story Credit: Reddit/messyjoes