# The Girl With No Pulse **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [May 31, 2025, 5:10am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395 "2025-05-31T05:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jaideep](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/jaideep/32/300_2.png) [@Jaideep](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Jaideep)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 5:10am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/1 "2025-05-31T05:10:00Z")
## **The Girl Who Had No Pulse** In the temples of Varanasi, when a child is born during an eclipse, they say the gods mark her in silence. **Ritika** was one of those children. Her grandmother swore she was blessed. Her mother feared she was cursed. > “She never cried loudly as a baby,” her mother said. > “But she watched everything.” * * * ### Act I — A Fire Without Fever At 21, Ritika had just started college in Pune. She loved running, sketching temples, and reading Bengali horror stories. One winter, she developed fevers — long, low, strange. Her joints ached. Her fingers went numb in the cold. She’d feel flushed in the face, dizzy after climbing stairs. Doctors said it was probably a mild viral illness. Or stress. Or a vitamin deficiency. She tried paracetamol, turmeric milk, yoga. Nothing worked. * * * ### Act II — The Disappearing Pulse One morning, while testing her newly bought smartwatch, she noticed: > No pulse. She laughed it off. Maybe the strap was loose? Maybe the smartwatch was broken? But it happened again. And again. When she finally saw the college doctor, he raised an eyebrow. Left radial pulse? **Barely palpable.** Right arm BP? **Undetectable.** Left arm? **90/60.** The doctor repeated the readings. > “Must be an error,” he said—but his voice faltered. A carotid bruit sang beneath her neck like a warning. She had lost weight. Her ESR was 98. * * * ### Act III — The Whisper of Arteries A Doppler study showed narrowed subclavian arteries. CT angiogram painted a map of war — stenosis, irregular walls, and turbulence like a storm inside her chest. Yet she never complained much. > “It’s just… my arms feel tired sometimes,” she said. > “And there’s a thunder in my ears at night.” No heart murmur. No rash. Just a girl who used to run through mango orchards now struggling to hold a sketch pencil. * * * ### Final Clues - Young woman, \<40 years - Low-grade fever, malaise - Asymmetric blood pressure - Weak/absent pulses - Carotid/subclavian bruits - Raised ESR/CRP - Angiographic evidence of large vessel involvement * * * **So, what’s Ritika carrying in her blood?** The gods’ mark? Or something far more human… and inflammatory ---
**Author:** ![Hrishikeshmed](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/hrishikeshmed/32/346_2.png) [@Hrishikeshmed](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Hrishikeshmed)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 8:41am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/2 "2025-05-31T08:41:57Z")
I think this can be Temporal Arteritis. Well I’m still not sure, but that’s what I can suggest from the given description. ---
**Author:** ![Jaideep](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/jaideep/32/300_2.png) [@Jaideep](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Jaideep)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/3 "2025-05-31T11:16:16Z")
close, it’s Takayasu arteritis. ---
**Author:** ![Aniket](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/aniket/32/1834_2.png) [@Aniket](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Aniket)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/4 "2025-05-31T12:45:42Z")
Great post!!! 💯 Keep it up 💪 ---
**Author:** ![Abhilasha](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/abhilasha/32/291_2.png) [@Abhilasha](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Abhilasha)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/5 "2025-05-31T16:15:47Z")
Ritika shows classic signs of Takayasu Arteritis—a rare large vessel vasculitis. Often affecting young women, it causes pulselessness, vessel stenosis, and systemic symptoms. Silent, progressive, yet deeply human in impact. ---
**Author:** ![Hbdoctor](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/hbdoctor/32/571_2.png) [@Hbdoctor](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Hbdoctor)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/6 "2025-05-31T18:25:16Z")
Great case study, Jaideep! #vasculitis #Takayasu ---
**Author:** ![Moksha\_s](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/moksha_s/32/271_2.png) [@Moksha\_s](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Moksha_s)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/7 "2025-05-31T19:05:56Z")
Interesting 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![Madhav07](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/madhav07/32/261_2.png) [@Madhav07](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Madhav07)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/8 "2025-06-01T12:42:18Z")
Have you heard of term suspended animation? @Jaideep ---
**Author:** ![Jaideep](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/jaideep/32/300_2.png) [@Jaideep](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Jaideep)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/9 "2025-06-01T16:48:22Z")
I have but I’m not sure how it relates to this case. Can you explain? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Triveni](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/dr_triveni/32/2018_2.png) [@Dr\_Triveni](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/Dr_Triveni)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 7:56am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/10 "2025-10-24T07:56:06Z")
Interesting case study. What is the case by the way? ---
**Author:** ![seeba](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/seeba/32/1987_2.png) [@seeba](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/seeba)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 11:24am UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/11 "2025-10-24T11:24:43Z")
interesting. ---
**Author:** ![vaish.bondge](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/vaish.bondge/32/2122_2.png) [@vaish.bondge](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/vaish.bondge)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 2:06pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/12 "2025-10-24T14:06:21Z")
What an incredibly powerful piece. Ritika’s strength comes through every line. This feels like the story of someone who refuses to be defined by what her body struggles with. Whatever name the doctors give it, she is clearly more than a diagnosis and deserves every bit of support and hope on her journey forward. ---
**Author:** ![SwatiS](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/swatis/32/1962_2.png) [@SwatiS](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/SwatiS)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/13 "2025-10-24T15:01:20Z")
Ritika is likely suffering from Takayasu arteritis, an inflammatory disease that narrows large arteries and causes weak pulses, fevers, and malaise. ---
**Author:** ![mugdha98](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex033/user_avatar/www.medboundhub.com/mugdha98/32/2096_2.png) [@mugdha98](https://www.medboundhub.com/u/mugdha98)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.medboundhub.com/t/the-girl-with-no-pulse/2395/14 "2025-10-24T16:17:25Z")
This is so well written! Very intriguing story