Cuando la vida se escapa (2003)

'When life escapes' is the story of a boy, Daniel, fourteen years old who suffers from an illness called Niemann Pick type C, a very rare affliction of genetic origin that only other 50 people in Spain have. Niemann Pick is a heap of cholesterol that affects the liver and the spleen and that finally destroys the brain neurones and eventually causes death. This sickness is so rare that it is almost not investigated at all. It is just one more in the long list of rare illnesses. There are no drugs for them because pharmaceutical laboratories do not invest money in the investigation of illnesses that only afflict a reduced number of patients. Problems in diagnosis are common, due to the lack of experts, and their only remedy is to create associations of sick people and their families to help each other and try to call the attention of the public health services to their plight.