Jordanian teen kicks chronic illness stigma
Kicking the stigma of chronic illness
Location: Amman, Jordan
Israa Tayeh doesn’t let anything stop her
She has a black belt in Taekwondo
and teaches classes to children
despite having an incurable condition
//called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome//
When she began having health issues
she found doctors continually dismissed her
(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) JORDANIAN EHLERS-DANLOS SYNDROME (EDS) PATIENT, ISRAA TAYEH, SAYING:
"We'd perform a lot of tests that would come out negative, and I would be shocked because I was in pain daily, but this wasn't coming out in the tests, and the doctors wouldn't believe me. 'You're overreacting' they would say. I would get very upset because I was suffering, and the person in front of me doesn't feel what I am feeling, and still they would tell me you're making this up or you're acting."
Tayeh spent hours researching rare diseases
until she found one that matched her symptoms
EDS affects connective tissue
and requires her to have a feeding tube inserted
through her nose and into her small intestine
She now hopes to study medicine
with a focus on rare diseases