When people say your life can change in the blink of an eye, they're really not kidding.
Juana Muñoz was a healthy 25-year-old woman living with her husband and one-year-old child when her world turned upside down.
That was in 1989, now almost 30 years later, Juana is confined in a glass cage that is only 25 square meters.
She lives without any human contact. She has no access to a cellphone, television, or a radio.
"The worst thing about living like this is not the pain, it is the physical and psychological damage of not being able to go out and live a normal life with loved ones," she said in dismay.
"In a few weeks my grandchild will be born and I do not know if I will be able to hold him at some point in my life."
She's been living in this small space for 13 years.
According to El Español, doctors say Juana is suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromylagia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and electrosensitivity.
The now 53-year-old Spanish woman has developed four chronic diseases - all without a cure.
But how she got to where she is today is still puzzling doctors. Juana believes she developed her mystery condition after being poisoned by homegrown potatoes.
She's hoping her story will raise awareness about the dangers of poisons put on our produce. This is Juana's story:
The Moment Her Life Changed
Juana remembers the day very clearly. She was bringing her husband's homegrown potatoes from their last harvest into the kitchen, when she came in contact with dust that was covered in an anti-germinating agent used to prevent stored potatoes from germinating.
After washing the dust, her eye started to itch, and she scratched it with her hand. Suddenly, her eyes and tongue began to swell.
She went to the emergency room immediately, where they gave her anti-inflammatory drugs and sent her home. But only an hour later she returned to the hospital, as her condition worsened.
She was unconscious at the intensive care unit of her local hospital for days. Her tongue was so swollen that she could barely breathe, and it took her more than a week to be able to get out of her hospital bed.
"I came to the conclusion that the origin of everything lies in the poisoning that I suffered," she told El Español.
Doctors helped Juana and her family get to the bottom of what caused this, so they sent her blood samples and a sample of the pesticide her husband used on the potatoes to a clinic study center in Barcelona.
Strangely, the samples got "lost." Over the years, the anti-germinating agent Juana's husband used on the potatoes was removed from the market, without her family having had any part in it.
"The Silent Evil"
Multiple chemical sensitivity is believed to affect the immune, psychological, and neurological system.
It's estimated that between 5% and 15% of the world's population suffers from multiple chemical sensitivity, according to the Alborada Foundation.
The Chemical Sensitivity Foundation says these numbers are rising every year.
"I think it comes from over-exposure to things we weren't designed for," Andy Jones, a lecturer in Environmental Sciences, told BBC. "Chemical companies produce four million registered chemicals and we never know what we're exposed to at any one time."
Juana isn't the only one who suddenly became victim to a rare condition. Martin Pistorius was only a child when he lost all control of his body, falling into a mysterious coma for years. Click here to read the story of "Ghost Boy."
[Source: Daily Mirror / El Español]