Haemolacria is a real physical condition that causes people to actually cry tears of blood. The tears of people suffering from this condition may range from being just tinged red, to entirely made of blood. While the exact cause or cure for this condition is not clear, it is known to be a symptom of several blood-related diseases or tumors. Let’s take a look at the three most talked-about cases of haemolacria in recent years:

Photo: Nindyr

Calvino Inman

15-year-old Calvino from Tennessee cries blood at least three times a day, with no warning when it’s about to happen. All he says about it is, “Sometimes, I can feel it coming up like a tear. I feel my eyes watering. Sometimes, it will burn as it comes out.” It hurt his feelings at first when his classmates began to say he was possessed, but now he says he’s used to it.

When the blood tears first came, his mother was so terrified that she called emergency services. “The scariest thing in my life was when he looked at me and said, ‘Mum, am I going to die?” She said it broke her heart. A lot of medical testing has gone on since then, including MRI, CAT scans and ultrasounds, but no doctor has been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation, yet. Mother and son have even been on TV in a hope that some cure could be found, but to no avail.

Twinkle Dwivedi

Twinkle is also a teenager suffering from a rather ghastly version of haemolacria. The 13-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, India bleeds not just from her eyes, but also her nose, hairline, neck and the soles of her feet. It’s almost like she’s sweating out blood, but strangely it does not cause her any pain. Twinkle’s 42-year-old mother is desperate to help her out.

Until a few years ago, Twinkle was a perfectly normal 12-year-old child. All of a sudden, she started to bleed anywhere between 5 and 20 times a day. “My school blouse went all red. No one would come near me or play with me. It was scary and messy, and my friends thought it was disgusting,” Twinkle revealed. Soon the young girl was thrown out of her old school and another school bluntly refused to take her in. She was forced to study at home and didn’t get to see many other children. According to her mother, Twinkle was very pale and weak from all the blood loss.

Once again, the doctors are baffled by the condition and have no idea how to treat it. In fact, one doctor even had to nerve to accuse her parents of making everything up. Local villagers believe the girl is cursed and shout cruel things to her on the streets. However, a British specialist has offered an explanation to Twinkle’s blood loss. He says she could be suffering from a clotting disorder, for which treatment is possible by a coagulation doctor. The family however, is very poor and hoping for a miracle to cure their daughter.

Rashida Khatoon

Rashida, from Patna, is another young Indian woman suffering from the blood tears condition. Blood drips from her eyes several times a day, and surprisingly she hasn’t been ostracized for it. On the contrary, she is regarded as holy and worshippers come to her to witness the ‘divine miracle’.

Her followers bow before her with reverence and shower her family with several offerings. Rashida herself says, “I do not feel any pain when it happens, but it is a shock to see blood instead of water.” Medical speculations have suggested the cause may be brain tumor or a malfunctioning tear ducts, but no one can say for sure.