In Alamosa, Colorado and with enormous desperation, the parents of a 12-year-old boy struggle against the clock, trying to find a treatment for his son, who has been diagnosed with a rare disease that turns the skin into stone.
The boys name is Jaiden Rogers and he suffers from “rigid skin syndrome,” which is a rapidly progressing connective tissue disorder that causes the skin to become hard.
Since before this terrible illness manifested itself, it could be said that little Jaiden has not had an easy life: the son of a single mother who could not support him, the Rogers decided to adopt him, becoming their legal guardians in 2005, teaching him to speak correctly and making him feel at home, since from an early age he was discovered to be autistic.
Jaiden has stiff skin syndrome—an extremely rare disease that slowly causes his entire body to harden. Visit his GoFundme: https://t.co/SyiscGx3XD https://t.co/ChCSEr2AIM
— GoFundMe (@gofundme) July 19, 2018
“His skin is basically like stone,” said Natalie Rogers, the child’s mother. “It’s like touching the kitchen counter.” But the most difficult part began six years ago, when the boy’s father, Tim Rogers, noticed a “small bump on Jaiden’s right thigh just under the skin.”
This is how the strange condition in the child was diagnosed. This disease was discovered for the first time in the sixties, and in it, the patient’s skin begins to thicken and harden, spreading throughout the body.
Along with Jaiden, only 41 cases have been documented worldwide.
The parents of the child have had to spend 677 thousand dollars of Tim’s retirement fund and have mortgaged their house 3 times to be able to pay the medical expenses for the chemotherapy that helps to slow the progression of his condition, and the strong medicines for the pain that make him sleep for up to 18 hours a day.
The couple opened a Go Fund Me account to receive donations to continue the treatment of their son.
The family seeks to raise 1.5 million dollars, which would cover a years worth of the special treatment from stem cells for rare skin diseases in Europe. Currently they have managed to collect 117 thousand dollars.
