Iqbal Sheikh, a youth from Murshidabad in West Bengal, India, has reportedly spent most of the last half-decade of his life in a small pond because the water helped cool his painful “burning skin”. Despite numerous visits to hospitals and self-proclaimed healers, no one has been able to cure or even diagnose his condition.
Spending five years day and night in a pond sounds difficult to believe, but according to Iqbal and his family, he experiences agonizing pain if he leaves the water for too long. He is convinced that his misfortune is the work of a ‘jinn, fairy or other supernatural entity’
Videos of the 16-year-old submerged up to his neck in water recently went viral online, sparking a heated debate around his condition. Several users on Reddit identified Iqbal’s symptoms as those of a rare condition called erythromelalgia. It mostly affects the feet, but can also affect other parts of the body, and its most common symptoms are a burning sensation in the skin and redness. It’s not clear what actually causes erythromelalgia, but some experts believe that it could be genetic.
Iqbal’s story reportedly caught the attention of Anant Ambani, heir of the massive Ambani business empire, who arranged for the 16-year-old to be transported over 1,300 miles to Mumbai, where a team of doctors can hopefully diagnose and treat his condition.
