VietNamNet Bridge – In the southern province of Vinh Long there is a family suffering from the Marfin syndrome. They are tall, with long limbs and long, thin fingers and most of them do not live past middle age.

Pham Van Quan

This family lives in Vinh Tac village, Vinh Xuan commune, Tra On district, with three generations suffering from Marfin syndrome.

Members of this family are tall, thin, with long limbs. Some of them died very young. Locals are very curious about the family and they guessed that family members died because of stroke or an enigmatic disease.

Pham Van Quan, a member of the family, recently exposed symptoms of heart disease when he reached the middle age. He was always tired and his health deteriorated very quickly.

Doctors of a local hospital diagnosed that he incurred heath disease and needed an operation, otherwise he would die. Quan’s family is very poor so he sent letters to many agencies, asking for assistance.

Quan and his newphew

The Poor Patient Patronage Association received the letter and decided to give him a free heart operation. Before the operation, doctors from the HCM City Medical University’s hospital examined and discovered that Quan’s family contracted Marfan syndrome, an uncommon disease in the world. If the disease is discovered late, patients will be unable to live past 45.

Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder of the connective tissue. It is sometimes inherited as a dominant trait. This syndrome can run from mild to severe.

The most serious complications are the defects of the heart valves and aorta. It may also affect the lungs, eyes, the dural sac surrounding the spinal cord, skeleton and the hard palate.

It is named after Antoine Marfan, the French pediatrician who first described the condition in 1896 after noticing striking features in a 5-year-old girl. The gene linked to the disease was first identified by Francesco Ramirez at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City in 1991.

In December 2010, doctors performed a heart operation on Quan. However, since the operation Quan is now allowed to carry items of over 10kg in weight or drive a motorbike. Other members in Quan’s family are about to go to HCM City for examination.

PV