Vinutha M. is a 23-year-old pharmacy student in the nondescript town of Nelamangala, about 30 kilometres northwest of Bengaluru. The life of this frail woman is a story of indomitable courage, resounding resilience, and unwavering determination not to be cowed down by a rare genetic disease that modern medicine has yet to find a cure for.
When she was nine, Vinutha’s parents noticed that some of the worrying symptoms she always had — poor appetite and an intolerance for solid food — were worsening. “All through her childhood, we fed her just milk. She had a skinny body but a huge abdomen. In high school, she was embarrassed to attend class with a huge abdomen. The only consolation was that she had no neurological impairment,” recalls her mother, Kalpana Murugesh.
