An 18-year-old girl from Kannur district, Kerala, dies due to an eating disorder called ‘anorexia nervosa’. The teen, Sreenanda, a resident of Koothuparamba, Kannur district, Kerala, passed away while undergoing treatment at a hospital, where she was on ventilator support. She was previously admitted to another hospital as well for treatment. According to reports, she was skipping meals and exercising intensively out of fear of weight gain. She was following diet plans suggested by online platforms and was surviving on water diet, reaching a stage of extreme starvation. She was a first-year undergraduate student at Mattannur Pazhassiraja NSS College. Medical experts suspect that She was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder, where an individual obsess over weight and food intake. Individuals suffering from this disorder often perceive that they are overweight despite being underweight and take extreme measures, like exercising excessively, cutting down food completely, staying on water diet etc., experts are seeing rise in such cases since the post-covid period. According to her relatives, her condition has been the same since 5-6 months, in which she drastically reduced her food intake and kept it from her family. A relative revealed that she was hiding and throwing away the food given by her parents and surviving on hot water. About five months ago, doctors advised her family for psychiatric consultation and advised her family to take care of her food habits.
The doctors of the hospital said that when she was admitted she was hardly 24kg, her sugar levels dropped, sodium and Blood pressure was extremely low and was on ventilator for support, but her condition didn’t improve and her life finally gave up.
