Indian woman's toes amputated after developing bizarre illness

A bizarre condition caused a 22-year-old woman to suffer from cauliflower ear and gangrene. Doctors were forced to amputate her toes after the gangrene ate her skin down to the bone, the Daily Mail reported.

Over the course of a year, the Indian woman, who is unnamed, saw her fingers and toes turn black, nose flatten and her ears became droopy. She also developed cauliflower ear. For eight years, she had suffered painful ulcers over her legs and ankles. She would also experience cough and breathlessness, nose bleeds, ear discharge and weight loss.

Doctors, who could not determine what the mystery illness was, gave her immune-system suppressing drugs that had previously worked to clear her other symptoms. However, the ulcers started to reappear on her legs just two months after treatment.

Despite, the diagnoses being unclear, the woman made a miraculous recovery after extensive treatment over a 13-month period. Treatment involved aspirin and steroids and amputation of her toes and fingers.

Even though the woman underwent a series of tests that included urine samples, X-rays and skin biopsies, her diagnosis is still not known.

 "To label such patients as an overlap syndrome or not may be a question of mere nosology, as the prognosis and treatment depends not on what diagnostic label is used but which organ’s systems are affected and the severity of involvement," wrote researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in the journal, the report added. Nosology means the analysis of disease.