Quality or condemnation?

At first glance it might seem like a great quality: Go through the world without feeling the least physical pain, whatever happens to you. However, reality is very different from that.

This is the case of the child Isaac Brown, who at five has never felt the slightest pain. He may have dislocated or broken arms; Maybe he has felt the edge of a knife on the skin. He may have faced those circumstances and others as traumatic or more than those, always with the same result ... he does not feel any pain.

The medical condition suffered by the child, and incapacitated from experiencing pain in any of its forms and due to the cause that is due, occurs as a result of a mutation in their genes.

From the aforementioned difference in their genes is blocked, or stops activating, the brain mechanism that through pain warns that the body is being subjected to an adverse circumstance, or potentially dangerous to health and even life.

 

Quality or condemnation?

In a study carried out by German scientists, it was discovered that the cause of the rare condition (the existence of several dozen individuals with it around the world is already known) is found in the SCN11A gene.

This gene is responsible for coding a protein that is part of the channel that allows electrically charged particles to cross the surface of neurons, or nerve cells, the foundation of pain perception.

The study showed that the mutation stops the functioning of the protein, which prevents the nerve cells responsible for informing the brain when there is pain, send the relevant signals.

In the case of Isaac, the parents found no alternative but extreme vigilance 24 hours a day, and a much greater effort to instill in the child the awareness that he should be especially careful.

It is impossible to prevent these children from being threatened by innumerable dangers, given their condition, but at least it is possible to try to make the life of the parents more manageable and less disastrous of the children.