Shalini Yadav, 16, described as being like a human snake, suffers from a rare inflammatory skin disease called Erythroderm a or ‘red man syndrome’.
It causes the skin over almost the entire body to become scaly and flake off.
The Indian teenager has to soak her body in water every hour and smear herself with lotion every three hours to stop her skin from hardening and seizing up, and has shed her skin every 45 days since she was born.
She has now been thrown out of school because fellow pupils are frightened by her strange appearance.
Shalini said: “I wanted to study but they threw me out of school as the children would get scared by seeing my face.
“Everybody in the family is suffering because of my medical condition. But what is my fault? What sin did I commit to be cursed with such a disease. I want to live. Please help me, if you can.”
Shalini’s desperate parents are so poor they are struggling to afford the moisturiser to help their daughter while they try to provide food for eight people, including her grandparents.
Her mother, Devkunwar, a caregiver in a state-funded community centre, said: “Shalini is suffering from the disease since childhood.
“We saw several doctors but none of them could cure her and her condition has continued to get worse.
“I feel so helpless when I see her skin coming off, causing excruciating pain to my child. We have no idea where to go to and who to consult.”
The heartbroken mother, who has two other children who don’t suffer from the disease, said death would be kinder to her daughter.
She added: “It is better to die than living a life of misery. This disease is not killing her but taking her life bit by bit.”Punch
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