Baby Katie (9 years old, living in Florida, USA) has a strange disease that confuses doctors because they cannot identify the disease.
The baby’s head is unusually large and the face is deformed. The baby could not walk or talk, suffered from epilepsy and underwent brain surgery when he was only 9 months old.
Initially, doctors diagnosed Katie with megalencephaly – a condition that causes the brain to grow excessively. However, doctors did not understand why Katie’s face became so deformed, which caused them to change the diagnosis of her illness.
Doctors believe that Katie’s condition is extremely rare, the incidence rate is 1/1,000,000, the disease has never even been named.
Due to the effects of the disease, the baby cannot eat normally and must use a feeding tube. Even though she is only 9 years old, she has had to have multiple surgeries to remove tonsils, shrink her ears, tongue and cheeks many times, and remove 2 tumors in her head.
Katie is considered a cheerful, active and approachable child. She is currently studying at a school for disabled children. Katie can use the computer and interact with her friends with the help of her teacher. Because Katie’s illness has not been diagnosed, her future is uncertain.
