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Mother's plea as son cries blood
Georgina Littlejohn2 Sep 2009
A teenage boy has left doctors baffled with a condition that sees him cry tears of blood every day.
Calvino Inman suffers from bleeding eyes several times a day and the bleeding can last up to an hour.
But medical experts have so far been unable to diagnose the cause and the 15-year-old mother has pleaded for help.
Calvino, from Rockwood, Tennessee, said: “Sometimes, I can feel it coming up, like a normal tear. I feel my eyes watering. Sometimes, it will burn as it comes out.
“I've been called possessed by almost all of my friends. I guess I'm used to it now.”
His mother Tammy has desperately urged anyone out there who has seen and can recognise the condition, to come forward and help her son.
She said: “The scariest thing in my life was when he looked at me and said, “Mama, am I gonna die?”. That right there broke my heart.”
Ms Inman said doctors have done a number of tests on Calvino, including an MRI, a CAT scan and ultra sounds but all the results came back as normal.
She also said she took him to several specialists but they were also unable to diagnose the condition.
She said: “Every doctor tells us they've never seen anything like this before in all their many years of being a doctor.
“More than anything, I just truly want somebody to say they've seen this and they can help us. I don't care where we have to travel.
“I will go wherever we need to go. I will do whatever I have to do. I just want somebody to help my baby. That's all.”
Reader views (12)
i thank its a gift cause i whatch the tv 3days ago a a little girl was on there and her eyes was doing the same thing and the dotors didnt know what is was and her mother was scared and she lived in isral and they went to dotors after dotors and finaly they said it was a gift they thought from god . and they said that they never see this befor.
- Chris Hookmen, sweetwater tn, 18/09/2009 16:15
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This isn't a hoax, I can vouch for him, He's a friend of mine at school and we even went to Summer C.A.M.P. together, But he couldn't finish out the Summer camp because of his condition. They're actually going to make him go back because they wouldn't let him stay, Which is pretty messed up. And for your information, not everyone in Tennessee is a dumb hick either, So for you who make the mistake of thinking so, You're absolutely right when it comes to good old Roane County. 
I really don't blame you for thinking what you think though, We let murderers go every year, And Rockwood's motto is "The Place to be In Tennessee." Anyway, Cya!
- Macy Miller, Rockwood, United States, 18/09/2009 15:15
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I AGREE WID JOCK BUH I DNT SEE HOW DIS COULD BE A HOAX.
- Beth, N9 4P7 LOND, 18/09/2009 15:15
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It's a miracle! -Roll-up, roll-up. -Twenty dollars a consultation!
- Huggy, Cumbernauld Scotland, 18/09/2009 15:15
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This is a condition called haemolacria. If you watch the video on CNN, you will see that the tears are in his eyes, not just on his cheeks. Just because something happens rarely doesn't mean it's impossible. It's been seen before. Look up the journal article published in Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery in 2004 by Viet Ho, et al., which deals with bloody tears of unexplained etiology (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15599244).
- Lee Thompson, Memphis TN USA, 18/09/2009 15:15
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Nope. It's real. I've seen it for myself. I've seen it in a Bond villain and a pervy priest (is there another type?) in The X-Files, so it must be real.
- Escobar-Alop-Lop, Camden County, 18/09/2009 15:15
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No blood IN the eye. Plenty of blood OUTSIDE the eye.
Amazing what those ear drop dispensers can do.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 18/09/2009 15:15
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I could do a better job photoshopping!
- Josh, London, 18/09/2009 15:15
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I was sceptical even before I read that this case is in Tennessee, US. Looks like a hoax to me. Why aren't the whites of his eyes pink or red? Most people blink when they cry, so surely there would be some evidence of blood over the whole eye...
- Jock, London, 18/09/2009 15:15
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I think you might be right Jock. How did this story get into the press? I can't have been the doctors...a quick call to the papers from Mum perhaps?
- Alan, London, 18/09/2009 15:15
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This isn't a hoax, I can vouch for him, He's a friend of mine at school and we even went to Summer C.A.M.P. together, But he couldn't finish out the Summer camp because of his condition. They're actually going to make him go back because they wouldn't let him stay, Which is pretty messed up. And for your information, not everyone in Tennessee is a dumb hick either, So for you who make the mistake of thinking so, You're absolutely right when it comes to good old Roane County. I really don't blame you for thinking what you think though, We let murderers go every year, And Rockwood's motto is "The Place to be In Tennessee." Anyway, Cya!
- Macy Miller, Rockwood, United States, 18/09/2009 15:15
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Maybe he has a minor congenital abnormality and the blood vessels in his lower eyelid are more fragile and closer to the skin than normal. This condition elsewhere on the body results in port-wine-stain birthmarks, but skin almost everywhere else on the body is tougher than eyelids.
An allergy might also be part of the problem. My eyelids go red and puff up to the point that I can't open them if I get dog-fur in my eyes. They don't bleed, but they do feel as if they're burning. (Oddly, dogs cause me only mild sneezing, not asthma).
If I were him I'd start by asking a doc to prescribe the biggest dose of anti-histamines I could safely take, and see if the bleeding went away for a while. If they haven't already tried that, of course.
- Nigel, London, 18/09/2009 15:15
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