A mother who was looking forward to the birth of her second child, was shocked by his looks after he was born.
When Parul Patro and his wife Biswajit of Bangladesh, welcomed their baby boy, they immediately realized that something was wrong.
The baby did not look like a newborn, but rather like an elderly man.
Doctors soon discovered that he was suffering from a rare medical condition known as progeria, which causes a child’s body to age faster than it should.
The baby was born with wrinkles on his face, hollow eyes and a shrunken body.
About one in four million children suffer from this condition and they usually do not live past childhood.
Parul and Biswajit, who already have a daughter, said that they have accepted their son the way he is.
“There is no need to be unhappy about the appearance of my son. We are so happy to have a baby boy in the house,” Parul said.
WHAT IS PROGERIA?
Progeria is a rare genetic condition that causes a child’s body to age faster than it should.
Most children with the condition – which affects just one in every 4million births worldwide – don’t live past the age of 13.
It is caused by a single mistake in a particular gene, which causes it to make abnormal protein. When cells use this protein, called progerin, they break down more easily.
Progerin builds up in many cells of children with progeria, thereby causing them to age more quickly.
Although most children with the condition appear healthy when they are born, they start to show signs of the disease during their first year.
