Meet woman who cries jagged, painful 'crystal' tears

 

Satenik Kazaryan said her life has turned into 'living hell' because of her condition.

A mind-boggling case of a woman who cries crystal tears is being investigated by doctors as she says the condition is unbearable.

Satenik Kazaryan, 22, from Spandaryan village in Armenia, weeps up to 50 jagged-edged tears each day that cause her incredible pain.

“I was at the dentist, and it seemed dust got into my eyes,” she said.

“It hurt me. I went to the ophthalmologist, and a few crystals were taken out of my eyes.

“Now my every day has turned into hell.”

At first, medication seemed to help but now the crystal tears are coming more frequently as shown on a video from Mir24.tv

“All the doctors are in shock,” she said.

“They have not encountered such a disease and do not know how to treat it.

“They have not even diagnosed it.”

Her relative Svetlana Avagyan said: “When we removed the first crystal, we thought glass got into her eye during work on our farm.

“But the pain did not stop and we kept getting more crystals from her eyes.

 The case has baffled doctors who say they've never seen anything like it.

“So we took her to the doctor.

“At first they did not believe us…. no-one here has seen anything like this before.”

One medic even told her to leave, believing she was faking her condition - but now it is accepted the crystal tears are natural, said her mother-in-law Zemfira Mikaelyan.

Specialists have sent the crystals for analysis but so far there is no diagnosis.

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One idea was to send her abroad for diagnosis and treatment but reports say Satenik’s family are poor and work as peasant farmers.

A mother of one, she married at the age of 15.

Armenian deputy health minister Oganes Arutyunyan said the woman’s case is being studied.

"We plan one more meeting with Satenik, aiming to gather more information, and then we will try to figure out what is going on with the patient,” she said.

Russian ophthalmologist Tatyana Shilova told REN TV channel that the condition is very unusual but not unique.

“Such a pathology rarely happens, so doctors may have difficulty identifying the causes,” she said.

In certain situations - genetic or inflammatory diseases of the eye, but also of the body as a whole - changes in the composition (of tears) can occur.

“In a tear, there are proteins, fats, micro-elements, it has a certain ionic composition.”

 While unusual the condition was nonetheless not deemed as unique.

If the salt concentration increases, this "cause the acceleration of crystallisation," she said.

"Proteins in tears can also increase their density.”

She warned that the crystal tears may be a sign of other problems.

“Crystals appear not only from the side of the mucous membrane of the eye - they can form in the liver, kidneys, and settle in the form of salts in organs.

“This is dangerous and requires investigation.”