the parents of a previously healthy 14-year-old boy were shocked when he told them he was an “evil, damned son of the devil” who wanted to kill himself before he could harm his loved ones.
the parents had him hospitalized in october 2015, where doctors prescribed medication for major depressive disorder with psychotic features. their son was released from the hospital a week later, still experiencing psychosis, but no longer exhibiting homicidal or suicidal tendencies. little did they know, their nightmare, as documented in the
journal of central nervous system disease
, was just beginning.
over the next two years, their once-bright son became increasingly dysfunctional, developing severe symptoms of mental illness, including irrational fears, phobias, obsessional intrusive thoughts, rage outbursts and psychotic thinking. attending school became an impossibility and, after he required a second hospitalization in december, 2015, his mother quit her job to care for him full-time.
he soon came to believe he possessed special powers and that one of the family cats wanted to kill him. as doctors would soon discover, he may have been on to something.
after endless consultations, inconclusive tests and ineffective psychotropic medications, the breakthrough came in august, 2016, when the boy’s parents noticed what appeared to stretch marks on his thighs and armpits. closer inspection led to a suspicion these faint lines may not be stretch marks at all, but scratches from the family cat that transferred a deadly pathogen to the young patient.
3 minute read
