Him – The Boy Whose Touch Could Cure Disease

He did it again. The people gathered knew he could. The first time it happened, he was 17 and he had no idea what he did. He just felt something leaving him that day and surprisingly he felt more invigorated after. When news broke about what he could do, he went into hiding. He had to close down the textiles shop he inherited from his grandmother. The crowd and constant invasion of his privacy was too much for him to bear. Being brought up as a kind and nice person, he always placed his palms on the people who asked. All he wanted  in return was food. Good home cooked food; one thing that reminded him of his grandmother. 

On a warm Thursday afternoon, he was woken up by a knock on his door. He wondered how they had found him again and began making mental plans to move to the next town. The people at the door were healthy men and women. They looked strong and fit. What could they want with him, he wondered. After a lengthy discussion which required the use of a translator, he agreed to go with them. They were from BSK. The leading company in Biotech in this world. They ran him through a lot of investigations with over a hundred blood draws and numerous scans. The conclusion was that he had a condition they had struggled to give a name to. They eventually agreed on it to be called the Haptogenetic Gift – HgG. What he did was not a miracle in its raw sense. His touch was of no supernatural power but one of communication. His touch spoke to cells in a language they understood.  A language humans could not comprehend in this universe. It was a language of voltage, rhythm and repair. When he lays his hands on you for a maximum of 30 minutes (as it was scientifically calculated to be), he learns your ‘electrical signature’ of your tissues. This could be inflammation, cancer-like instability, abnormal cell signalling or damaged DNA stress patterns. Basically, bad cells or disease were identified, corrected, silenced or persuaded to perish. His body released what they thought to be microscopic therapeutic vesicles from his sweat, almost like natural exosomes. The scientists had concluded that he was born with a rare palmar bioelectric organ which had evolved from his modified sweat glands and nerve endings. His palm was found to contain dense arrays of living electrochemical sensors, like biological versions of ultrasound probes. 

During his time at BSK, he ‘cured’ 400 people living with diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmune diseases. Tumours shrunk in real time. This was captured on imaging scans. Wounds closed. Broken bones healed. Children missing a gene or chromosome received it instantly and physical ageing reversed to match the ideal cellular age. Cardiac diseases and metabolic conditions took less than 15 minutes to reverse. Complex surgeries were being corrected before the naked eye! It was truly one for the history books!

The investigations surprisingly revealed that illnesses caused by microbes took a lot more time with a success rate of 80%. One person thought to have been cured from end stage syphilis passed away the next day after his HgG treatment. His disease was far gone, they thought. Plans were already in motion to study this aberration really well. 

Attempts to replicate his ability had yielded no positive results. His parents were long deceased and he was raised by his step grandmother. Attempts to trace his genetic line were proving more difficult than they thought. In the scientific community, everyone was picking up on this study. Most labs across the world had dedicated staff and personnel to study the HgG. Some were even studying if the micro textile industry he grew up in contributed to this gift. There were countless research papers and proof of concepts on novel programmable RNA, CRISPR-like enzymes, tumour-suppressor instructions, and sophisticated immune signals. They called it the end of diseases and there was some excitement everywhere. Some men of faith were even excited about this gift to mankind.

On that fateful day, he asked to go out for fresh air. He was treated like a king. He did not mind the probing so much. He had been told it was for good. The world will thank him and he was happy with that. He knew his grandmother would be proud of him. When he stepped out from the huge glass door that encircled the building, he was astonished by what he saw. He was surrounded by the most beautiful landscape he had ever seen in his life. Well manicured grass, a lake to his right, clear blue skies and well-lit up roads. He looked on his left and saw a van coming at full speed towards where he stood. Then there were people shouting and running toward him. He knew it was too late. He saw his grandmother with her hands opened ready to hug him. He closed his eyes and smiled. 

This story belongs to my Clinical Sci-Fi series, where I imagine the future of medicine through fiction, ethics, and emerging science. The idea was inspired by real scientific questions around bioelectricity, regenerative medicine, cellular communication, and what might happen if healing became something biotechnology could study, own, or exploit.