The Real Benjamin Button: A Six-Year-Old Boy with an Old Man’s Body

 The Real Benjamin Button: A Six-Year-Old Boy with an Old Man’s Body

No matter if you’ve seen the movie about Benjamin Button, you’ll know what we’re talking about. Yernar Alibekov is only 6 years old, but he looks as if he is in his eighth decade. Just a month after his birth, he was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease with signs of extremely rapid aging. He had not yet grown up, but he was already a living old man.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a rare disease that happens to one in 50,000 peopleOne should distinguish between extremely rapid aging and what is happening to Yernar. He is developing like a child, but his blood vessels, skin, and some of his organs are degenerating as if they have exhausted their resources. Because of this, he has senile, flabby skin that constantly sags, and digestive and exercise problems. What’s worse, there is no cure at all and it all comes down to constant care and curing of problems.

Despite the fact that plastic surgery is banned in Kazakhstan before the age of 18, an exception will be made for Yernar. The family has raised funds for an operation that will help get rid of excess sagging skin on the boy’s face, but it will not change its structure. And it won’t be a cure. The problems will reoccur in the future

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