Little boy, 8, lives in agony battling mysterious skin condition that’s ‘turning his body to STONE’
Mehendi Hassan's body is covered in painful scales that make it excruciating for him to walk or touch anything
AN EIGHT-year-old boy has been shunned by his community because of a mysterious skin disease that is slowly turning him into a stone.
Mehendi Hassan does not have tender hands like kids his age.
His legs also do not bear scars from playing football or cricket like the boys in his village.
His face is the only part of his body free from the painful scales that have robbed him of his childhood.
His whole body has thick layers of skin that makes it difficult for him to even walk or touch anything.
Hassan struggles to wear clothes as even slightest of friction to his skin is excruciating and 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."
The third child of Jahanara, a brick kiln labourer and Abul Kalam Azad, a van driver, Hassan was born a healthy child, in village Dona Raninagar in Naogaon district of north Bangladesh.
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
Jahanara Begum
But twelve days after his birth, his parents noticed minor rashes in his body.
The illiterate couple ignored it thinking it to be 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.
The concerned parents consulted various local doctors, trying all forms of medicines-allopathy and homeopathy, to heal their son but nothing could control the outbreak.
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.
Whenever I could save a little, say 10 pounds, I would take him to doctors.
"Eventually, all my savings and earnings were exhausted on his treatment but there was no cure.
"Frustrated, I stopped taking him to doctors. For last year he has not seen any doctor."
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.
Related Stories
"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.
Jahanara said: "I had enrolled him to a school but there he was beaten up by other children. One day he came home crying and saying he was assaulted in school.
"I requested his teachers to please pay attention to him and see no one beats him up but the teachers said they were unable to discipline other kids and that his presence was affecting studies of other children.
"Even at Madrasa, the teachers would talk to him from a distance and never let him eat with other children saying he stinks. He has no friends and he does not go out.
"To see him live alone is devastating," his mum cried.
"He cries and says why he is suffering.
"I always tell him Allah has made him different and with his will, he will also be able to study and live a normal, healthy life."
Hassan's mum is now pleading government to help her son find a doctor who can treat him and give him riddance from the pain.
"I beg government to please come forward and help me with his treatment so that he too can live as a normal human," she said.
"I have been struggling a lot raising him up.
"Everyone hates him, no one likes to see him or eat in front of him. Not even my mother-in-law.
"I beg government to help my child. Seeing him in pain is unbearable," Jahanara pleaded.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368