As with any newborn, Brody Curtis is always treated with extreme leniency. But for parents of Brody that goes beyond simple care love - the slightest touch can cause his skin to blisters and even stand together.. When he was born, there was almost no skin at all, and the doctors in Indianapolis, he was diagnosed with a rare syndrome known as Bart.

Her mother, Heather, told ABC: "It looked like he had third degree burns, the doctors could almost see his brain.." . He was immediately taken to a special intensive care unit, before flying to a pediatric hospital in Kentucky, where he remained for 27 days.

Brody is now back at home. But it still has some skin on the arms and legs, then it must be in bandages from his feet to his knees and wrapped his hands to the elbows. Every day parents spend one hours dressing and apply gentle a salve to stop his open wounds infected. The skin is sensitive and it is easy to break. Brody also has small bubbles in his mouth and his tongue, a feature of the disease. Bart is a genetic disease that affects just one in a million children. This is the most severe form of a spectrum of skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

The prognosis is bleak. His mother, a teacher of mathematics, said: "We know that different forms can lead to death early in life, and it can cause skin cancer.. "Some people go to be blind or defects in their bodies.". There is no cure - or an effective treatment - and all doctors can do to apply bandages to the infection and injury is to stop the skin.

Doctors do not yet know if his skin never put the time, but Mr. and Mrs. Curtis hope that their little boy is able to lead a normal life. She told ABC: "He shows no pain until we do the dressing change and he got much better.. "All systems are healed quite well, apart from his left leg. The skin is back and scab has grown and is like an open wound." . Neither his parents had no idea that she carried the gene that causes beard. They are both healthy, Brody's older sister, McKenna.

Dr. Jouni UTTO, chairman of the department of dermatology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said: "EB disorders group are highly variable in their severity. "In the most severe forms, the children can die within days or weeks after birth. The skin does not work. Or they have infections, and malnutrition and eventually develop a form of aggressive squamous cell cancer.. The other extreme tilt, people with a milder form of the disease to have blisters and erosions on the hands and feet.

For now, all parents Brody can do to change his bandages and pray for the best. Ms. Curtis said: "We hope it will be one of the lucky ones and still be active and do sports and grow up to be a normal child."