VietNamNet Bridge –  The funeral for Nguyen Thi Phuong, the beautiful woman who suddenly in the aged quickly in the town of Giong Trom, Giong Trom District in Ben Tre Province, was held on August 20.

Nguyen Thi Phuong before...

... and after she got the disease (with her husband).

Phuong’s husband, Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, said that after a period of time treating stomach pain, Phuong’s health weakened. She lost weight after suffering from insomnia and digestive symptoms. She died on August 19 at the age of 30.

Tuyen said recently, because of stomach pain, his wife had to go to HCM City very often for examination and treatment. Over a week ago, she began vomiting after eating.

Phuong began aging in 2008, when she was only 26 years old, after several months of taking allergy medicines.

Phuong was allergic to seafood. In 2008, after eating seafood, she suffered a serious allergy. Her husband bought allergy medicines from a local pharmacy for Phuong. She took the medicines for several days but they were ineffective. Tuyen took his wife to a local doctor, who diagnosed dermatitis and wrote a prescription for a week.

However, Phuong had hives on her face after taking the medicine. She stopped using the drug and saw many Oriental doctors and took different kinds of medicines to cure liver disease.

Using Oriental medicines for six months without effectiveness, Phuong turned to Chinese traditional medicines. Herb doctors still insisted that Phuong had liver disease and gave her medicine for liver diseases. The woman took Chinese traditional medicine for two months.

Phuong’s disease did not ease up and she aged very quickly, looking like a 70-year-old woman. She had to wear a mask whenever she left home. Except for her aged face and hands, her voice was as sweet as an 18-year-old girl.

Phuong’s beauty was destroyed by disease but her husband did not stop loving her.

After local newspapers wrote about her case, doctors from big hospitals in Vietnam gave their diagnosis.

Doctors at the HCM City Endocrine Association said that Phuong did not suffer from early aging, because she only looked old and no symptoms of old age. Her memory was very good. Biological functions of her internal organs were also normal.

Doctors from HCM City Medical University, Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, HCM City Dermatology and Venereology Hospital said that Phuong was a victim of corticoid. Her skin looked old because she took medicine with corticoid for a long time and then suddenly stopped.

Some doctors from large hospitals in Hanoi said that Phuong was allergic to medicine because of an endocrine or genetic disorder.

In October 2011, doctors at the HCM City Medical University Hospital conducted skin tests but could not determine whether Phuong aged overnight.

The Sun and The Daily Mail, the two biggest-selling newspapers in the UK, had articles about Phuong.  

The Sun, the UK’s biggest-selling daily newspaper, said Phuong’s disease could be lipodystrophy, -a rare syndrome which causes a layer of fatty tissue beneath the surface of the skin to disintegrate while the skin itself continues to grow at a startling pace.

The paper added that the syndrome, which has no cure, leaves victims with loose folds of skin on their bodies as well as wrinkled faces and features of people much older. Only 2,000 people worldwide are thought to have the condition.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail quoted doctors saying the condition might be Cushing’s syndrome, which can be triggered if a person has very high levels of a hormone called cortisol in their blood.

According to the result of a skin biopsy conducted by medical experts at Baylor University in Texas, Phuong suffered from Mastocytosis and Acquired Cutis Laxa.

Phuong’s condition was very rare since she is the only second patient worldwide to have been diagnosed with these diseases.

After two months of treatment at the HCM City Medical University Hospital, Phuong came home with 30 percent of her itchy wrinkled skin reduced, making her look a bit younger.

Some Japanese television channels shot films about Phuong.

In 2013 a Russian television station invited Phuong and her husband to Russia to participate in an international health program on aging.

Le Ha