8-Year-Old Boy Stayed At Home All Because Of Bizarre Skin Condition Turning Him Into Stone

A boy has been shunned by society because of an acute skin disease which is slowly turning him into 'stone'.

Mehendi Hassan, eight, does not have tender hands like other young children his age. Instead, the youngster from Bangladesh is covered with painful scaly skin all over his body apart from his face.

His torso and limbs are covered in thick layers of skin that make it difficult for him to walk.

Little Mehendi struggles to wear clothes as even slightest of friction to his skin is excruciating and tragically stays at home all day because his appearance terrifies other children in the village.

His mother Jahanara Begum said: "Other children detest him. People find him filthy because of his condition.

"He has been home for eight years because whenever he goes out, villagers get scared and say bad things to him. It upsets him so I keep him at home.

"He always cries out in pain. It is devastating to see him suffering."

But 12 days after his birth, his parents noticed minor rashes in his body.

However the illiterate couple ignored it believing they were mosquito bites.

"But soon the rash spread from his heel to abdomen and within three months, his finger, chest and back turned into thick, scaly skin.

Frustrated and soon out of money, they eventually stopped his treatment.

Abul Kalam Azad said: "No doctor could diagnose the disease. They all say he suffers from a rare skin disease but no one has been able to cure him.

"I have no money left. Whatever little I could earn from driving a van, I spent it on his treatment.
Doctors, who have examined Hassan believe his case is severe but are unsure of the condition and the causes.
Dr Mohammad Emdadul Haque, child specialist, said: "He was brought to us for treatment. The patient is suffering from a rare kind of skin disease.

"We do not receive such cases normally. It is hard to say what he is suffering from. We have referred him to advanced skin specialists. "

With no treatment and growing bizarre condition, Hassan is forced to live as a pariah in his village as no one likes to even 'glance at him'.

He does not play or study at schools because teachers turned him away as his appearance terrified pupils.

The mother is now pleading government to help her son find a doctor who can treat him and give him riddance from the pain.