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5-Year-Old Boy's Rare Condition Won't Allow Him to Eat |
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Written by Mike Cohen
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Friday, 11 December 2009 |
A 5-year-old U.K. boy has been diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic condition, which has left him unable to eat.
Keaton Foale, suffers from congenital disorder glycosylation type two, which affects just one in 135 million people.
Any food that goes into his stomach is instantly rejected.
His condition was diagnosed when he was just three-months-old.
Doctors have fitted a special feeding tube that delivers a special high-calorie milk mix to his stomach four times a day in 50 minute sessions.
He will have to wear it for the rest of his life.
Keaton's mother, Claire Plummer, 29, from Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, said very little was known about Keaton's condition.
"As his weight plummeted, doctors put Keaton on tube feeds through his nose — but even this didn't stop him vomiting," Plummer said.
"Something had to be done to make sure that he could get the nutrition he so desperately needed. Doctors were forced to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach."
Glycosylation type two is a non-hereditary genetic disorder which can cause a range of disturbing side-effects.
Keaton suffers from internal bleeding on a regular basis and loses several pints of blood every year.
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