14-year-old models, Dasha and Masha Ledeneva, were rushed to intensive care as they had become ‘living corpses’ no one wanted to help.
Doctors in Moscow are now battling to save the lives of the sisters who are critically ill from anorexia after their Russian modeling school told them to reduce weight.
The teens were taken to hospital after 29-year-old Maria Kokhno, a campaigner for eating disorder victims, asked the public desperately for medical help for the twin teenagers who were at risk of ‘lying and dying at home’ because doctors ‘refused’ to intervene.
Recently, both of them had gone into a coma for three days at another hospital. But they were then allowed to go home even though they were desperately ill, said Kokhno, who is also a model and has overcome anorexia.
During that time, Masha had reduced to 40 kg and her sister Dasha to 36 kg. The slim models had models had been told they should reduce weight ‘so their cheekbones were visible’ and they would be given more shoots.
Thanks to Kokhno’s plea, the girls were rushed to a hospital in Moscow. She said: “Nobody was keen to help the girls, their mother went here and there, hospitals were rejecting them. Masha can stand up but Dasha is only lying and cannot even lift her head.”
“The mother contacted TV presenter Elena Malysheva and the Nutrition Institute in Moscow but nobody wanted to deal with ‘living corpses’.”
Kokhno said the family were desperate to reach out to her, making her want to assist the girls.
TV channel Moscow24 showed the 29-year-old model with the teens as they entered a hospital and quoted a doctor saying the task “is to rescue them from a condition when their heart may stop beating at any moment.”
Kakhno said: “Both twins were told in the (modelling school) to lose five kilos (11lbs) of weight each, so their cheekbones were visible. Both were about 50 kilos (7 st 12 lbs) then.
“The girls began to diet, they did not eat after 5pm and ate only steamed food. Gradually, their portions and the number of their meals went down.
“Dasha, who has been perfect in everything, lost her weight down to 36kg. Masha tried to catch up with her lost her weight to 40kg.”
Alexey Dobrovolsky, a well-known doctor in Russia, explained: “At first the person loses and loses weight, and finally when the brains switch on, they stop doing it.’
“But the body had already ‘transformed’. Now whatever the human being wants to do, all the biochemical processes in his body are already ruined.
“As a result, we get the kind of weight both girls have now. The patients are in intensive care. The task of the doctors is to rescue them from a condition when their heart may stop beating at any moment.”
Kokhno added: “Please pay attention to your relatives. Maybe someone close to you is quickly losing weight? It is important to discover anorexia as early as possible.”
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