Imagine a condition so rare that it only affects a single person on the whole planet. This medical condition seems straight out of a comic book as the person affected experiences no pain, no hunger and no need for sleep. Sounds superhuman? But actually it is a nightmare.
This is the story of Olivia Farnsworth who suffers from Chromosome 6p deletion. There are around 100 known cases of this specific variant but most experience only 1 or 2 phenotypes. Olivia is the only person in the world with all three, no pain, no hunger and no sleep.
When Olivia was 7 years old she was hit by a speeding car which dragged her approximately 30–40 meters. Everyone who witnessed the accident was horrified but Olivia simply got up and walked back to her mother, without crying, without showing any symptoms of pain. When she was taken to the hospital doctors labelled her bionic because she felt nothing.
While her condition may seem like a superpower, it is anything but. Pain, hunger and sleep are not weaknesses, they are inbuilt survival mechanisms. They are the body's way of signalling something is wrong and needs attention. But Olivia has none of them. She could hold her hand over a flame and it would burn her skin but she would not feel anything. She could be bleeding internally and feel completely fine until it is too late. The truth is she is not immune to death, she simply cannot hear it knocking.