Bayezid Hossain does not look like other children his age. With hollowed eyes, sagging skin and deep frown lines, the four-year-old resembles a senior citizen rather than a young child.
Heartbreakingly, this is a condition he was born with called progeria. It ages the body at eight times the normal rate.
Most children with the ‘Benjamin Button’ disease die before the age of 13 from a stroke or heart attack. For Bayezid’s young parents this is a frightening reality.
The child’s family are too poor to be able to afford specialised care outside of their home in rural Bangladesh. Instead they must watch their cheeky and playful son try to live in a body that doesn’t mesh with his youthful personality.
Bayezid’s mother, 18, has expressed her anguish at watching her child suffer, but not being able to take away his pain.
“I was terrified to see him when he was born,” Tripti said. “He was just flesh and bones. He looked like an alien and it was heartbreaking for me.”
“Doctors had no idea what to do, they said they had never seen such a baby. They warned us that there was nothing they could do,” she told The Daily Mail.
The condition Bayezid suffers from inspired the film, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. In it Brad Pitt’s character is born an elderly man and ages backwards as time goes on.
You can watch Bayezid and his family’s story above.
