Victoria Hare says she has always had the ability to sense when her children are seriously unwell through the power of smell – and claims this helped her detect her son’s diabetes
A mum who claims she can “smell diseases” saved her son’s life after noticing the aroma of a potentially fatal illness even though doctors had dismissed him.
Victoria Hare, 41, says she has always had the ability to sense when her children are seriously unwell through the power of smell. The woman claims she is able to smell ketones on a person’s breath – which have a distinctive pear drop or acetone smell emitted through the breath and sweat.
A smell of ketones on a person’s breath can be a sign of a number of conditions, including a life-threatening complication of diabetes known as diabetic ketoacidosis, the ketogenic diet and liver failure. “Pear-drop breath” can also be a characteristic of type-1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder that affects around 400,000 people in the UK and means the body is unable to process sugar properly.
Thanks to her ability, Victoria said she became concerned that her 15-year-old son Harry may be diabetic when he began stinking of nail varnish remover in October last year. However, the mum-of-three, who lives in Oakham, Rutland, was unable to get a GP appointment to confirm her suspicions – so used a device to measure his blood sugar levels, which were “sky high”.
Victoria, who works as a yoga teacher and dreadlock artist, rushed Harry to Peterborough City Hospital where doctors said he was close to diabetic ketoacidosis – a serious complication of diabetes that can be fatal. Victoria feels immensely grateful that her smelling superpower helped save her son’s life – and is urging others to be persistent with their doctor when concerned about their health.
Victoria said: “I could smell this acetone smell on him, it was like nail varnish remover. And I knew that smell. When my other son was very poorly and couldn’t eat for a few days, you get ketones – your body is burning its own fat for fuel and there’s a specific smell with that.
“And I smelled that smell on my son and I’ve also smelled it on my mother before when she’s been very unwell. I asked Harry if he’d been unwell recently or if there’s any bugs going around but he said no. I could just smell this smell on his breath, he doesn’t have to be dead close to me to smell it. It was very strong.
“When he was speaking, I could smell this acetone smell coming from him. You can get this smell when you’re doing the keto diet as your body’s in ketosis. I’ve got a really sensitive sense of smell, but not everyone can smell ketones on people’s breath. I was confused because I knew Harry was eating but I could smell it on him. You expect to smell it on someone who hasn’t eaten for a few days.”
The following few days, Victoria said her son “stank” of acetone as well as complaining of being thirsty and getting up to go to the toilet in the night – confirming her fears that he may be diabetic. Victoria said she rang her local GP but was told his symptoms were “not an emergency” and to call back next week.
However, Victoria remained concerned so tested her son’s blood sugar levels on a machine which were so high, they didn’t even register on the device. Victoria said: “It’s really dangerous. Who knows how long his sugar levels had been that high for. I rang the doctors and they did blood tests and found he had really high ketones and actually wanted to ring an ambulance to take him to hospital.
“The doctor said the fact you’ve spotted all the signs and put it together and known it was diabetes, you’ve saved his life.” Harry was rushed to Peterborough City Hospital where he was admitted for two nights and diagnosed with type-1 diabetes after nearly losing his life.
Victoria said: “Luckily I had brought him in just in time. When you go into diabetic ketone ketoacidosis, your organs start to shut down. People die from that. I did grieve a bit when he was diagnosed because that was the end of life as we knew it. You can’t just have a bit of chocolate anymore.
“I’m disgusted with the doctors. They said just to leave him, he could’ve died. I think sadly people need to take more responsibility for their own health. You need to push when you think something isn’t right. You need to persist. It’s horrifying they didn’t have any appointments. I was so grateful I had this super sense of smell. It was a massive giveaway. My husband couldn’t smell anything.”
