Meet chef Loretta Harmes who hasn’t eaten, drunk water in 8 years

Loretta Harmes, a 25-year-old chef from the UK, has been living without solid food or water for the past 8 years due to a rare health condition.

As a child, she faced stomach problems, but it wasn’t until she turned 18 that she experienced severe pains after eating.

After several years of uncertainty, doctors finally diagnosed her with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), which has led to gastroparesis. This condition prevents the food she eats from being properly digested in her stomach, stopping it from reaching the small intestine.

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To survive, Loretta relies on a specialized liquid filled with all the necessary nutrients. This liquid is connected to her stomach and enters her bloodstream, providing her with essential proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes. She carries the liquid bag with her every day, allowing it to nourish her for 18 hours.

For the past seven years, Loretta has been receiving nutrition through a tube in her chest. This bypasses her entire digestive system, rendering her gut inactive during this time.

Loretta Harmes: Lady who has survived without eating in 8 years

She mentioned being on parenteral nutrition (feeding of nutritional products to a person intravenously, bypassing the usual process of eating and digestion) for life but expressed determination not to accept it as their fate.

Lorretta expressed her readiness for the next challenge, which involves transitioning from parenteral nutrition to enteral nutrition (Enteral nutrition refers to any method of feeding that uses the gastrointestinal tract to deliver nutrition and calories.)

Explaining the process, she said the first stage of the plan is to introduce water through the tube to get her bowel accustomed to having something pass through it again.