25-year-old boy suffers from syndrome that makes him appear to be only 12
Would you say the boy in the picture is 25 years old? Of course not? For, although it looks like he is no more than 12 or 13 years old, Polish Tomasz Nadolski is now an adult - and looks like this because of a very rare syndrome called Fabry's Disease, which affects 1 to 3 people. every 100, 000 births.
According to Caroline Redmond of All That Is Interesting, Fabry's disease is a genetic condition that is usually only diagnosed in childhood and causes a partial or total deficiency in the amount of an enzyme needed to metabolize certain lipid substances in the body. .
Painful syndrome
Among the symptoms presented by the carriers are gastrointestinal disorders, loss of sweat gland function, recurrent fevers, numbness, tingling or burning in the hands and feet, body aches, chronic tiredness and swelling of the lower limbs.
As if it were little, in certain cases, such as Tomasz's, the syndrome may delay the onset of puberty, leading the bearers to show short stature and appearance to eternal children. As with most people diagnosed with Fabry Disease, the young Polish began to show the first signs at age 7 when he developed digestive problems and complained a lot about body aches; however, for years no expert has discovered what really was wrong with him.
Because of the symptoms and discomforts, Tomasz had (and still has) a lot of difficulty gaining weight and over time began to show signs of physical and developmental disabilities. Childhood with the disease was not easy, since in addition to the teasing at school, as the syndrome was not correctly diagnosed, doctors simply explained to parents that all Tomasz needed was to eat more.
To make matters worse, many experts said that the boy suffered from psychological problems and, as the years went by, the symptoms intensified and Tomasz's relationship with his parents deteriorated. After all, besides the family not understanding what was wrong with the boy, everyone saw and treated him as a child. And unfortunately, even after the Polish was correctly diagnosed with Fabry Disease, things didn't improve much.
Eternal child
Tomasz confessed that he feels extremely lonely and that the child he sees in the mirror does not correspond to his image of himself. He said he envied people his age, who had the opportunity to study and find cool jobs, and said he dreams of being independent and living alone.
However, according to Tomasz, as the illness affected his physical appearance, he cannot live a normal life, so much so that he is accused of using false documents and was even registered by the police as a fugitive child. On the other hand, Tomasz was lucky with one thing!
There is a treatment for Fabry's Disease which consists of a therapy for the replacement of enzymes that your body does not produce through periodic injections. It turns out that only two laboratories produce the drug, and the cost is nearly $ 300, 000 - the equivalent of nearly $ 1.2 million - per year. However, one of the manufacturers agreed to provide Tomasz treatment at no cost.
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