- A soon-to-be 1-year-old girl in Washington has one of the most dangerous and rare diseases in the world, a disease that causes her skin to peel off every four hours, causing a very painful feeling.
Baby Harper Foy from Washington is currently the youngest person to suffer from Harlequin Ichthyosis, a genetic disease. People with this disease will develop skin 10 times faster than normal people, and will also quickly peel off.
Doctors thought the disease would kill her because she was too young to fight the complications. To survive, babies need to always keep their skin moisturized.
To have skin like a normal person, the girl must always keep her skin moist. Image of baby Harper with mother Angie and 6-year-old brother Jaxon.
Newborn Harper is meeting his 40-year-old mother Angie for the first time.
The doctor saw no signs of the disease in father Kevin, 38 years old, and mother Angie, 40 years old, so they did not give a warning before giving birth. But they did not expect that their daughter would suffer from this dangerous disease.
While still in the womb, Harper’s skin tissue continued to grow and created large lumps that formed on her hands and feet when she was born. When she was born, Foy was taken into the special care room and doctors thought of a solution to remove the skin plaques, but that meant she would lose four fingers.
After a month in the hospital to avoid infection, baby Harper conquered death and was discharged home. Although there is currently no cure, long-term treatment of keeping her mostly wet in the bathtub should allow her to lead a normal life.
Baby Harper was like an alien when he was born.
Baby Harper’s first month of treatment at the hospital. At this time, the baby was discharged from the hospital and returned home.
Baby Harper’s family is raising money to buy a special bathtub in time for her first birthday next month – a party Kevin and Angie thought would never happen. The bathtub will be imported directly from Japan, with a price of 6,000 USD and 15,000 USD installation fee.
Foy’s mother said: “It’s a miracle that my baby is still alive. We really didn’t have enough money when my child was born. And we were shocked. When he was born, my child didn’t look like a normal person, he looked like an alien. I was very sad.”
There were 17 doctors directly involved in treating the girl, but they all said that this was a very rare disease and had never been recorded in a newborn baby. The incidence of this disease is 1 in 1 million.
The girl is about to celebrate her first birthday.