Isaac Brown is a 5-year-old boy from Iowa who suffers from a rare
genetic condition which makes him immune to pain, but not to the effects
of his frequent injuries. Painful falls, deep cuts and other agonizing
injuries that normally make children scream at the top of their lungs
and cry out for their parents, don’t determine any kind of reaction from
little Isaac. Even after he broke his pelvis by falling from playground
equipment, he calmly acknowledged that something was wrong, but he
didn’t feel pain.
Isaac was born with a conprivate part
insensitivity to pain (CIP) and, according to his parents, the first
years of his life years were especially hard as the boy “would just drop
to the ground and smack his face on the table. He thought the fall was
fun.” Unaware of the damage he was doing to his body, he also put his
hands on a working oven burner and one time cut himself with sharp
pieces from a mug he had broken. His parents sought medical help but
were disappointed to find that his condition was untreatable.
The
only advice medics were able to give the couple was to teach Isaac to
recognize pain. He now knows that bleeding is bad but he is still unable
to understand that there are different levels of pain which vary in
intensity. While he understands that his father accidentally stepping on
him is painful, he doesn’t recognize that a cat brushing against him,
while it might be unpleasant to some, should not hurt. Unfortunately,
Isaac’s response in both of these situations is the same “Ow” that his
parents thought him to say.
However, when he broke his
pelvic bone at the playground, the boy became aware that something was
wrong, but wasn’t quite sure what. “He thought his ankle hurt,” his
mother says. Because of this, she believes that “He does feel
[something], but the pain has to be 20 to 30 times greater to what we
would feel.” Apart from his inability to feel pain, Isaac also suffers
from Anhidrosis – a rare condition that affects fewer than 100 people in
the United States, which renders him unable to control his temperature
or feel hot or cold. In the summer, when the temperatures are sky-high,
he is forced to stay indoors or wear a cooling vest to help him lower
his body’s temperature.
Because CIP is so rare, medics don’t know
what causes it or what to advise parents with children who suffer from
it. In an attempt to learn how to take better care of their son, Mr and
Mrs Brown have also sought help online and found “The Gift of Pain”, a
Facebook group created by desperate parents looking to give their kids
the chance to a normal life. As members of this group, the parents of
Ashlyn Blocker – a 13-year-old girl with the same disorder who has been
featured in numerous news pieces when she was a bit younger, have set up
a gathering called “Camp Painless but Hopeful.” Any family burdened
with CIP can attend and learn more about the condition as well as ways
of preventing their kids from unknowingly hurting themselves. Although
Isaac has been kept quite safe by his parents without resorting to
extreme measures, “other kids have had all their teeth removed because
they would self-mutilate, bite their tongues, chew their fingers off,”
Mr Brown says.
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