A teenager who suffers from an extremely rare condition means if he
falls asleep unassisted – he dies. Liam Derbyshire was born with
Ondine’s Curse, officially known as Congenital Central Hypoventilation
Syndrome, which causes respiratory arrest due to a patient’s lungs not
functioning when they are asleep. The condition, which affects less than
1,500 worldwide, means the 17-year-old has to be plugged into a life
support machine and watched by a carer every night to keep him alive.
