Petrify you? Can happen

Ever chatting with someone, in a situation of amazement did you hear him say the expression "I was petrified!" ? Well, you better think twice before saying it, since it is something that could actually happen to you.

The disease that turns you into stone

Since the 19th century some medical texts describe patients who apparently turned to stone ; With this it is possible that they referred to the Progressive Ossifying Fibrodisplacia (FOP), name of the disease that can convert all your body tissues as: muscles and tendons into bone, leaving you forever.

Skeleton of a person affected by Fibrodysplasia-ossificans

Source

The FOP saves its origin in the activation of the ACVR1 gene which is mutated , thus causing formation of bone tissue in the areas where it resides, and it is enough that any of the parents transmit it to acquire it.

Symptoms

This disease no is precisely silent , since warnings appear in childhood as outbreaks; then as inflammations of the soft tissues , until they finally become bone , progressively losing mobility.

Petrify you? Can happen

Petrified man from the ruins of Pompeii (Italy)

The most common places where the FOP usually announced are areas close to the spine , to extend into areas such as elbows and knees; although interestingly parts such as the diaphragm, heart, blood circulation, and facial muscles are never reached by this disease.And although has no cure , specialists try to create measures to provide them a better quality of life for these patients.

Affected

According to some studies, this alteration affects about 3,300 people worldwide, of the which the fourth part develops deafness and baldness.However, there is a particular case around this condition, which squeezes some hearts.

I donate your body to find, one day, the cure

Born in Philadelphia, In November 1973 Harry Raymon Eastlack Jr , is the patient with the most known case of FOP so far.

His condition began to develop when he was only 10 years old ; and by the time of his death caused by pneumonia in 1973 (30 years after acquiring FOP) his body had already been completely ossified, losing absolute mobility , with the exception of his lips.

What is particularly notable in Raymon's case is that shortly before his death he announced his last wish, which was to donate his body to science so that, in the future, people in the same conditions would have hope of cure; He hoped that his death could help find the cure for this unconventional disease.And as was his wish, his preserved skeleton is now residing in the Mutter Museum, at the Philadelphia Medical College, a body that contributed as a invaluable source of information for the study of this disease.

What do you think about this terrible disease? Were you surprised by its existence?

If you were interested in this article, do not miss the catalepsy, the dream is not always eternal.

Images: Hersson Piratoba, Benjamin Jakabek

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