The baby born with virtually no SKIN

Like any newborn baby, Brody Curtis is always handled with the utmost gentleness.
But for Brody's parents, that care goes beyond simple love - just the slightest touch can cause his skin to blister and even come off all together.
When he was born, he had almost no skin at all, and doctors in Indiana diagnosed him with a rare condition called Bart's syndrome.
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Protected: As soon as he was born, little Brody Curtis had to be wrapped up in bandages because he had no skin on his hands, feet or head

His mother, Heather, told ABC: 'He looked like he had third degree burns. The doctors could almost see his brain.'
He was rushed straight to a special care unit, before being flown to a children's hospital in Kentucky, where he stayed for 27 days.

Now Brody is back at home. But he still has little skin on his arms and legs, so he has to be swaddled in bandages from his feet to his knees and his hands to his elbows.
Each day, his parents spend an hour changing the bandages and gently applying a salve to stop his open wounds becoming infected.

Hopeful: Brody with his parents Heather and Chuck. They hope he will one day be able to lead a normal, active life

The skin he does have is fragile, and erodes easily. Little Brody also has blisters inside his mouth and on his tongue, a hallmark of the disease.
Bart's is a genetic condition which affects just one in a million children. It's the most severe form of a spectrum of skin diseases called epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
The prognosis can be grim. His mother, a high school math teacher, said: 'We do know that different forms can cause early death in life and it can cause skin cancer.
'Some people go on to be blind or have deformities in their bodies.'
There is no cure - or effective treatment - and all doctors can do is apply bandages to stop infection and damage to the skin.
Doctors do not yet know whether his skin will ever grow back permanently, but Mr and Mrs Curtis are hopeful their little boy will be able to lead a normal life.

Swaddled: Brody sleeps in his rocker. His parents say he seems to be in less pain now, and it only hurts when they change his bandages

She told ABC: 'He doesn't show any pain until we do the bandage changes. And he's gotten a lot better.
'All of his appendages are healed pretty good, except for his left leg. The skin is growing back and it scabs over and is not like an open wound anymore.'
Neither of his parents had any idea they carried the gene which causes Bart's. They are both healthy, as is Brody's elder sister, Mckenna.
Dr Jouni Utto, chair of the dermatology department at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said: 'EB group disorders are tremendously variable in their severity.

Treatment: Brody spent 27 days in hospital after he was born, and will soon be taken to Cincinnati children's hospital to see an EB specialist

'In the most severe forms, children can die a couple of days or weeks after birth. The skin is not functioning.
Or they have infections and eventually develop malnutrition and some form aggressive squamous cell cancer.'
At the other end of the spectrum, those with a milder form of the condition have a tendency to get blisters and erosions on their hands and feet.
For now, all Brody's parents can do is change his dressings and pray for the best.
Mrs Curtis said: 'We hope he'll be one of the lucky ones and still be active and play sports and grow up to be a normal kid.'

 

By Fiona Roberts taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009068/Baby-Brody-Curtis-born-SKIN.html#ixzz1QfwQBFj9