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5-month-old baby is 'turning to stone' due to THIS rare condition - Know about it

The girl, Lexi Robins, was diagnosed with a condition that affects just one in two million people globally.

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A five-month-old baby girl in the United Kingdom has been diagnosed with a very rare incurable condition that "turns her body into stone".

The girl, Lexi Robins, was diagnosed with a condition that affects just one in two million people globally.

Lexi seemed healthy at birth, but when her parents Alex and Dave Robins noticed an issue with her big toes, it led to the discovery that she was suffering with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP).

About fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva

The FOP can lead to bone formation outside skeleton and restrict movement. The genetic disorder gradually replaces muscle and connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments, with bone. Thus, it is generally perceived that the condition turns a body into stone.

FOP effect

It means that if Lexi's body receives even just a minor trauma - something as simple as falling over - her condition will worsen rapidly.

The condition leads to sufferers being bedridden by the age of 20, while life expectancy is around 40.

The condition means she can't have any injections, vaccinations or dental work, and she also won't be able to have children.

Lexi's X-rays, done in April, suggested that she had bunions on her feet and her thumbs were double-jointed.

"We were initially told, after the x-rays, she probably had a syndrome and wouldn't walk. We just didn't believe that because she's so strong physically at the moment and she's just kicking her legs," Lexi's mother Alex told HertsLive.

"She's absolutely brilliant. She sleeps through the night, she smiles and laughs constantly, hardly ever cries. That's the way we want to keep her," she added.

Lexi's parents have started a fundraiser for research to find a cure for Lexi. They are also running an awareness campaign to alert other parents whose children might have similar conditions.

"We want to be those parents who are trying to make a difference for Lexi and, on the back of that, trying to make a difference for any other parents who have to suffer such a cruel disease as well," Lexi's father Dave said.

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