Eating food with protein can put her health – or life – at risk

Doing so will lead to toxic levels of ammonia in her blood due to a genetic disorder

- Judith Tan Correspondent

Growing up, insurance agent Rachelle Yeo was often told by her mother that she was "different – not special".

"I went to mainstream schools, did my homework and hung out with friends like any other school-going child. I even took part in sports," said Ms Yeo, 29.

The only thing different was that she could not indulge in the occasional rib-eye steak dinner, fried chicken or even a good scrambled egg breakfast.

Ms Yeo has a rare hereditary metabolic disorder called ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, where the body cannot remove ammonia, produced when protein is broken down, from the body.

"As a baby, I was feeding poorly and vomiting often. I also had fever and seizures. The doctor at the first hospital where my mother took me told her that I had fits, prescribed some medication and then sent us home," she said.

"But I guess it was a mother's intuition because she knew it was not so simple. She did not medicate me but instead took me to KKH (KK Women's and Children's Hospital) for further tests. That was where she met Dr Teo Siak Hong. He was then researching into this kind of condition in babies."

Dr Teo, who has since retired from the hospital, diagnosed Ms Yeo with OTC when she was 18 months old.