Like most 16-year-old boys, Mithun Chauhan always wanted three things: Go to school, play with friends and have a girlfriend.

But after suffering from a rare disease , his body developed large, swollen lumps and he was unable to lead a normal life.

Mithun spends his days at home, because his swollen face always makes locals afraid to approach him. He even has a nickname, “devil boy”. He also couldn’t go to school because other children often ran away when they saw him.

“Why did the gods punish me like this?”, Mithun said as he looked at the tumors on his body. “That’s why I was shunned and abandoned by my friends. Now, no one wants me. play with me. That’s why I can’t go to school or simply take a walk in the neighborhood.”

” They called me a ghost and started running away when they saw me…

I’m really scared of their eyes looking at me… I usually stay home during the day to avoid people.

When women and children saw my face, they ran away saying, “Ma, Ma!

I spend most of my time at home alone. I do not have friends.

There’s no one to talk to. I don’t know what things are most worth having in my life.” ,  Mithun said.

Meanwhile, his family in Navada in India, have always maintained that the ulcers that spread across his body appeared after a doctor prescribed the wrong medication to treat a painful mole when he was five.

The swelling on his face became increasingly severe, causing great difficulty in eating, seeing and breathing.

“After taking the medicine, Mithun’s face started to swell. The boy’s entire body turned red like copper,” said father Ramji Chauhan.

Ramji and his neighbors were also always worried and afraid that his son had been “cursed” by the gods, so they prayed every day and performed rituals to cure him.

It was not until he was taken to see Dr. Ashwini Dash that Mithun’s illness was discovered. The boy was diagnosed with neurofibroma, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow along nerves throughout the body.

There is no specific cure for the most severe cases of the disease. There are about 33,000 people in the world diagnosed with neurofibroma, but Indian doctors believe Mithun can be cured.

He said: “The surgery will be performed in stages and will cost at least 300,000 rupees (equivalent to 100 million VND),” said an anonymous doctor.

Doctors also told Ramji to take his son to more advanced facilities in Delhi or Mumbai but he barely had enough money to feed the family, let alone pay for his son’s treatment.”

The heartbroken father added: “Circumstances have robbed him of his childhood. It’s painful to see and hear people talking about his son’s appearance and calling him a ‘ghost’.”