The Brothers Who Suffer From Paralysis When The Sun Goes Down | Our Life

[Music] in a small village outside the provincial capital of quetta live two brothers show abe 13 and rasheed who has just turned 12. [Music] [Music] but these ordinary looking boys have an extraordinary condition [Music] as their friends carry on playing the brothers have to head home to their parents and four siblings as the sun goes down shawab and rasheed's strength and energy progressively deteriorates [Music] eventually they lose the ability to control their limbs show abe no longer has the strength to hold himself up rasheed knows he will be next [Music] the brothers are utterly helpless [Music] unable to move [Music] barely able to speak they are trapped in their bodies [Music] the brothers will remain in this immobilized state throughout the night [Music] their inability to do anything for themselves means they need round-the-clock care [Music] come morning show abe and rasheed make a seemingly miraculous recovery and get up without difficulty it's like the paralysis of the previous night never happened [Music] to [Music] tried everything he could to get help for his sons [Music] so much i [Music] foreign [Music] in 2016 the boy's mysterious condition came to the attention of journalist irfan hashmi of dunya tv one day we had a call right from this guy and he said there's there's a story which you should work on and there's there are children who can walk in sun and they don't walk in night time so i says what it doesn't make any sense and i said i don't have time for all this so you should call someone else you know and then after thinking for five ten minutes you know i realized that that there is some potential in the story instead of we go straight away and be judgmental on that why don't we just go and investigate when the news crew reported back irfan's preconceptions that the story might be a hoax were quashed when i sent my team there and then he saw everything with his own eyes and he came back with all the footages then we realized that yes this is the time and this is a story which we have been waiting for my whole life you know the crew took choi ben rashid to the nearest major hospital hoping for a diagnosis so the idea was to document the search of the cure for these children and this way we'll educate the world that what we are telling you is real and it's happening however there was still no explanation for their mysterious condition indeed a fan knew that the boys needed the attention of the wider medical community if they were to get any help so he came up with a nickname to capture the public's imagination in pakistan solar panels are really famous so solar panel and then solar children so that's how we came up with this name solar kids the solar kids became a national phenomenon one of the country's most eminent doctors professor javid akram was curious to know if this was more than an attention attention-grabbing headline this report was a very striking and a dramatic sort of thing and it became very popular in the medical world because nobody have heard of such things i contacted the media house and i asked them i would like to send the teams to the bulacastan to see what's happening we looked at the environment we took samples of air soil water everything medical team could find no answers so dr akram flew the family to islamabad to run further investigations at the pakistan institute of medical sciences some in the medical profession had suggested the family had munchausen syndrome a psychological disorder where someone fakes or induces an illness they were even labeled at one stage that they are malingering and trying to exhort some money out of people i had a psychiatrist working with them i had a psychologist working with them and we didn't get anywhere this was a challenge for me to unveil this mystery a year on dr akram wants to continue his inquiries [Music] show abe and rasheed will travel with father hashem and cousin firstly to lahore and then on to islamabad [Music] younger brother tariq doesn't want them to go the next 10 days could be the boy's last chance to find a cure for their debilitating disease and finally live a normal life [Music] are supposedly the only two people in the world to share a mysterious condition as night falls their muscles seize up leaving them paralyzed with their father hashim they are traveling across the country hoping to disprove claims that they don't have a legitimate illness and ultimately get help finding a cure [Music] for on the way to the airport hashim asks the driver to stop here lie the graves of his two younger sons who died in infancy uh foreign iv had they lived hashim fears rasheed share the life-threatening illness [Music] so then as they arrive at lahore dusk sets in [Music] [Applause] it's a race to get them to the hotel by the time they get there joab and rasheed are totally incapacitated [Music] by now all the boys can do to communicate is whisper [Music] so [Music] and all hashem can do is pray for an end to the boy's suffering [Music] their nightly ordeal behind them the boys are fully mobile again they have been summoned for investigations at jinnah hospital by professor akram these solar boys as we call them the striking thing was that two boys had died of a similar disease and the other striking thing is it was affecting males only the females were unaffected so obviously my mind went to the genetic side the specialist genetics lab in lahore is run by professor sheikh rayazadeen he worked with professor akram on the case last year and shared his initial skepticism when we consulted the literature we had never seen anything like that and we even started that maybe it is not a physical disease but the family is pretending that they are sick so that was our starting point the blood samples will be used to extract dna if they find any mutations this could prove the boys are suffering from a genetic disorder and counter claims from some in the medical profession that the family are faking the illness the mutation by definition is a change in the building component of dna in one human genome there are over three billion building blocks and a small change in one of those would cause the disease okay last year blood samples from healthy family members were taken in order to compare their dna with showab and rasheeds we found five changes in the dna now out of those five mutations we have eliminated two of them and maybe that there is more than one mutation maybe there is only one hopefully we'll be able to pin down the causative mutation but the results are inconclusive so the family will be sent to islamabad for the next stage of the medical [Music] inquiry before they leave the family visit irfan hashmi at dunya tv news the brothers only came to the attention of professor akram when irfan made them headline news it was not a matter of ratings we were talking about two real lives here two solar children who wants to be normal like any anyone else hashim kesey ortigo [Music] that the boy's plight is real and to use their story to highlight the need for better medical care in remote areas how it feels for being a father when their children cannot walk in front of you and you're helpless you cannot do anything you cannot even tell the world that why they don't have inner doctor there in their society in in in that area we have to bring such stories into a limelight high five i think the government and the people like us should be focusing more on this by bringing forth the stories like this on the television screen reports we're going to talk about that airfan will record a special news update with the family once the assessments in islamabad are completed [Music] the family set off on a four-hour car [Music] journey [Music] they arrive at nightfall and show abe and rasheed are totally paralyzed once again [Music] hashim keeps his usual nighttime vigil [Music] 8 a.m the family are returning to the pakistan institute of medical sciences to see professor akram [Music] a year of detailed study has still not cracked the mystery of the solar boys it seems as if i have become part of the family they're wonderful kids wonderful family very caring father unfortunately they lost brothers for the very similar reason what they describe is probably had a respiratory failure because all the muscles are controlled from the brain we don't want them to be lost now the professor has instructed a team of scientists and doctors to try and shed light on the case our objective is that they should have normal quality of life they can marry they can earn for themselves their family and of course they will be valuable citizens of pakistan then [Music] the tests have been scheduled to start tomorrow so the family have the afternoon free foreign [Music] [Music] but the medical assessments are never far from hashem's mind the next few days will be critical will hashim's prayers be answered and will his sons ever lead a normal life [Music] and rasheed are the only two people in the world with a mystifying condition as the sun sets they fall into a paralyzed state unable to move or talk but each morning when they wake up the terrifying symptoms have disappeared [Music] they are a thousand kilometers away from home desperately in search of a cure um today professor akram's team will try and solve the boy's mysterious condition [Music] owing to their notoriety the boys are familiar faces to the staff doctors hope this intensive series of tests will provide some answers [Music] first they give blood and urine samples ultrasound scans are used to examine their internal organs this is the right kidney an electrocardiogram is used to check the rhythm and electrical activity of their hearts when it's his turn to be tested rasheed becomes anxious is next it's a chest x-ray the final test of the day is a full ct scan any abnormalities to their brains could provide evidence that they have a genuine disorder [Music] all the family can do now is wait [Music] foreign but the days are still short and as the sun goes down the boys know what will happen [Music] the next day the family are back at the hospital [Music] professor akram has asked his most experienced radiologist dr shella to examine the scans um for the past 35 years and in my medical career i have not heard about such a thing when i look at these brain ct scans of both the children there's nothing out of the ordinary this is a perfectly normal brain so their brain is completely normal according to us relieved to hear his son's organs are healthy but still desperate for a cure hashim brings his sons to pray with him at the famous faisal mosque meanwhile professor akram has been informed that the results appear to show the boys are in good health as i've confirmed he asks his consultant neurologist dr rao sohail for a second opinion so we can't say for sure that what's going on in their mind so we are doing our best and we are lucky that we have professor javed akram who is the kin who has keen interest in research we have never seen such a disease before we are not aware that anybody else has seen such a disease so it's very difficult to give a prognosis over here while the doctors are trying to look at every possible reason for the brothers nightly paralysis hashim seeks comfort in his faith [Music] back at the hospital the doctors have one final hypothesis to explore it could be the boy's last chance we were unable to find any structural changes in the brain it is a biochemical thing that on one side we have two systems in the brain one is cholinergic system another is dopaminergic system low dopamine is responsible for the muscle seizures seen in sufferers of parkinson's and dr akram believes the boys may be suffering a similar shortage during the night these patients these kids if it is dopaminergic deprivation we have dopaminergic drugs that we can use the doctors decide to do a one-off experiment tomorrow evening they will give the brothers el dopa a drug which they hope will correct the chemical imbalance in their brains so i'm not quite optimistic but i am hopeful that uh after al doba which converts in dopamine in the brain cells for having normal life but the uniqueness of the boy's condition gives no guarantee that the drugs will work me my [Music] if tomorrow's trial goes well this living nightmare could become a thing of the past [Music] [Music] and rasheed are the only two people in the world to suffer from a condition that leaves them paralyzed when the sun sets as a final endeavor to find a cure tonight the brothers will be given a drug it is hoped will counter the symptoms they describe as evening approaches their muscles start to weaken their father hashim and cousin imdad take them to the pakistan institute of medical sciences where the drug will be administered dr rao sohail is the consultant neurologist overseeing the trial okay now you can observe that his leg right leg is quite stiff you cannot bend this easily and his foot is quite stiff his now you can see the jaw are also quite stiff he has difficulty in solving okay so other boy is also having the same problem he can you cannot bend easily his legs having problem with swallowing and he has a stiff neck [Music] 15 minutes ago the brothers were given l-dopa to stimulate the part of the brain that controls movement it is used to combat stiffening of the muscles a symptom associated with parkinson's disease [Music] so [Music] uh all anyone can do now is wait and hope [Music] 40 minutes after taking the medicine rashid's legs suddenly show some flexibility now you see this their tone is reduced you see wow he's smiling yes he started smiling [Music] this is the first time we was he has turned his uh neck minutes later chauvet regained some movement too [Music] [Music] 45 minutes after being administered the drug shawb and rasheed are coming out of their paralyzed nocturnal state it's the miracle hashem has been praying for now they have smile on their faces they can move their jaws and they can show you the teeth now you have to take them to some fast food chain for the food [Music] um [Music] we don't match just one hour after being given the medicine both boys are strong enough to walk out of the hospital [Music] for the first time in their lives the brothers have control over their own bodies during the night and eating after sundown would have been unthinkable by the time they arrive back at the hotel the medicine has taken full effect and they can walk in unaided [Music] hashim calls home to share the incredible news with the rest of the family it's their last day in islamabad and hashem and his sons are recording a news item with irfan hashmi of dhanya news the reporter who broke their story a year ago i believe the television industry is not all about breaking news for me we as a media manager have to develop a kind of a social responsibility we have to bring such stories into a limelight and i think that's what we did by bringing kids of koita into these corridors and telling their story to the rest of the world we need to give them a right exposure so it can attract a bigger audience the bigger research team and bigger contribution towards the genetics like we did in the solar children's story so you know but the combination of an early start to the day and the unusual late night has proven too much for rasheed i haven't seen these children like smiling like this because before that for them it's all about pain but now i think they're in a position where they can plan their life every human being in this world has every right to live a normal and healthy life i feel that in in the society like pakistan we have done something really unique it's a kind of a corporate social responsibility which every news manager in this country in this industry should be doing thank you very much [Music] before they make the long journey back home the boys asked to stop off for one special goodbye this type of disease possibly this is the first reported family so now we are in a position to describe this new disease it's a complex genetic phenomenon professor akram is satisfied that the brother's condition can now be safely managed with eldopa your normal but the boys will still need ongoing care to manage their condition there is a distance involved here so i'm looking for a physician nearby whom i can convince now he has proven that this is a new disease professor akram will carry on his work to uncover the cause of the condition and aims to present his results to the medical world we intend to write a whole book on this phenomenon i have learned a lot from this disease i am much wiser now before i knew this family and that's life medicine is lifelong learning inshallah [Music] it's the end of a 13-year journey abe and rasheed are finally able to enjoy a normal childhood free from pain and fear [Music] fortunately [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Our Life

Views: 2,872,563

Keywords: our life, documentary, world documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, solar boys, solar kids, paralysis

Id: mfqKS5trngs

Length: 43min 6sec (2586 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

That's sad. How are people calling it a scam?

[u/sffrylock]

Made me think of Piper in the Woods by Philip K. Dick. "Earth maintained an important garrison on Asteroid Y-3. Now suddenly it was imperiled with a biological impossibility—men becoming plants!"

[u/ijntgb]

Theyre scamming

[u/redseaaquamarine]

The father in this documentary is a really good man. It shows how much he loves his sons.

[u/BlowMoreGlass]

Quite possibly the stupidest documentary.

[u/rshotty]

The doctors seemed to be a little loose with their research. Why didn’t they take blood or conduct tests during the day and at night?

First, I would have put them in separate rooms(far away from each other and their dad) with no windows, no clocks and no means to tell what time of day it is to see when they actually get weak.

I would have then given them both placebos.

Only after seeing consistent results of the first two steps would I involve any real medication.