Keep smiling Tianna: The little girl who cannot cry... because tears could spark a fatal seizure
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:06 PM on 02nd November 2009
Little Tianna Lewis McHugh is the girl who cannot cry - because it could kill her.
The two-year-old has a rare condition which means tears could trigger a fatal fit.
Her parents, Ceri Lewis and Andy McHugh, face a daily battle to make sure she doesn't cry.
Tianna looks as though she's died when she has a terrifying Reflex Anoxic Seizure (RAS).
Her skin goes white, her body stiffens, her heart stops beating and she stops breathing.
Tears for fears: Tianna McHugh suffers from terrifying reflex anoxic seizures when she cries
Other children with the condition react to pain, fear or fright, but Tianna has a form so extreme that simply crying can trigger a fit.
She was diagnosed with the condition aged 18 months and has since survived 10 seizures.
The most serious lasted two hours.
Mother Ceri, 23, an hotel receptionist from Wrexham, North Wales, says she was hysterical when she saw her daughter's first fit.
She said: 'I picked her up out of her high chair and put her on the floor and she cried for seconds and then she looked like she had died.
'She went a deathly grey, her lips and around her eyes were blue and her eyes rolled back in her head.
'When she has the fits she stops breathing and looks dead because she stiffens up and her back arches.
'I thought she was dead.'
Little smasher: Tianna with her parents Andy and Kerry McHugh
Father Andy, 30, a car sales executive, rushed home and tried to resuscitate his daughter by putting his mouth over her nose and mouth and breathing.
'After five or six blows she took a massive breath and came around crying her eyes out,' he said.
Tianna was taken to the high dependency unit at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, but doctors were unable to diagnose her condition.
A fortnight later a second seizure lasting two hours left her fighting for life.
Doctors warned Ceri and Andy that if she didn't come round within 10 minutes she could die or suffer brain damage.
Luckily she pulled through and recovered after three or four days on the childrens' ward.
Doctors then realised she'd suffered a Reflex Anoxic Seizure.
She suffered her last fit in July and Andy and Ceri are hoping she could grow out of the condition.
'When she has fits it's horrendous,' said Andy, 'When she starts to cry we usually have to flick water in her face to bring her out of the shock.
'She can do whatever she wants but for 18 months we have been cautious with her so that she doesn't get hurt or shocked and cry.
'She is our little angel and this makes you appreciate her more.
'She is hyperactive, talkative, bubbly and very active. She's very well developed for her age.'
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...fatal-fit.html 
Keep smiling Tianna: The little girl who cannot cry... because tears could spark a fatal seizure 
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