14 DAY TRIAL // Easton Friedel was born on august 23 in New York. From his arrival into the world, nurses noticed that he was missing parts of his skin. They immediately called a doctor to check up on the boy.
“Right when he came out, his nurses noticed he was missing skin from his knees to his ankles and his elbows down to his hands,” his mother, Jessica Friedel, told WLWT.
It turned out that the little boy was suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa, or EB, a disease that makes his skin raw. At the slightest touch, his skin blisters and falls off.
Easton has to bear having his entire body covered in bandages soaked in Vaseline, at all times. Yesterday was the first day when his parents could hold him in their arms, after wrapping him in a blanket covered with Vaseline.
When the Friedel found a doctor in Cincinatti that had dealt with the disease before, they immediately asked for a consult. Pediatric dermatologist Anne Lucky is currently attending the child.
The boy has been moved to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital for treatment, but the prognosis doesn't look good. Most newborns afflicted by EB don't make it through the first year. Jessica and her husband are set to stay in Ohio for a longer period of time, however, and they haven't given up hope.
Their friends, family and neighbors from Auburn, New York have all contributed to help make this little guy's life easier. More than $50,000 (€38,550) have been raised so far by the concerned community, and it's all going into bandages and other medical expenses.
Jessica watches helplessly as her son's condition gets worse and worse.
“He came out crying because he's in pain... you can't take him home, and you can't do the things you want to do as a mother because I can't take away his pain,” the boy's mother says.
