The emergency room’s fluorescent lights flickered as paramedics wheeled in a girl no older than twelve — thin, pale, and silent. Her name was Kira. But it wasn’t her stillness or silence that froze the staff — it was her grotesquely swollen abdomen, stretched so tightly it gleamed. She looked pregnant, but she was just a child. Her mother stood nearby, trembling, her voice barely a whisper: “I thought it was gas…” Dr. Yelena Orlova,
a seasoned physician with decades of experience, stepped in with urgency. Imaging revealed a massive buildup of fluid inside Kira’s belly, pressing on her organs and threatening to suffocate her from within. A rare condition was finally identified — intestinal lymphangiectasia — a disease so uncommon that many doctors never encounter it in their careers. As the pressure mounted, both physically and emotionally, Kira clutched her stomach and whispered one thing as they rolled her to surgery: “Mommy… I don’t want to die. I still haven’t finished watching my show…”
