A 4-year-old boy from Bangladesh named Bayezid Hossain has earned the nickname “real-life Benjamin Button,” after the Brad Pitt movie entitled “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
In the said Hollywood film, Pitt played the role of a man who ages backward as he started life looking like an old dwarf and then returning back into a baby’s countenance before he died.
Bayezid, from Magura in southern Bangladesh, is believed to suffer from a rare disease called progeria, a disease that ages the body at eight times the normal rate. He has a swollen face, saggy skin, achy joints, and difficulties passing urine.
Unfortunately, most children with ‘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.
According to AWM:
Children the same age as Bayezid are afraid of him because of his rare condition, which means he can’t go to school. People in the community usually avoid him, despite the fact that after word spread about his birth, people queued up outside his house to see him.
If you take a quick glance at Bayezid Hossain, you can tell that he’s been through a lot in life. Wisdom seeps from his eyes, and the wrinkles on his face express all the trials and tribulations he’s endured through decades of hardship and hard-won experience. Those observations might be true, but for one thing, Bayezid Hossain is not a small old man, he is a child who was born with an extremely rare condition that makes him appear to look much older than he is.
Bayezid understands his condition, but he doesn’t like talking about it. “He just cries when he feels awkward,” said his father, Lovelu Hossain, 22.
When he was born, he became the talk of the village when neighbors heard about the birth of the abnormal child.
“I was terrified to see him when he was born. He was just flesh and bones. He looked like an alien and it was heartbreaking for me,” said Tripti.
People feared being close to Bayezid and often gossiped about the couple’s capabilities as parents, as Tripti and Lovelu are first cousins, said the report. In rural parts of Bangladesh, it is not uncommon for cousins to marry.
But as time went by, neighbors slowly grew used to Bayezid‘s presence and now fondly call him the ‘old man’.
Lovelu revealed that he has already spent Rs 4 Lakh (S$7,088) seeking medical attention for Bayezid. The couple has tried taking him to doctors, shamans, and all sorts of healers but none have been able to treat their son’s condition.
While Bayezid is perfectly cognitive for his age, his parents fear that his physical condition might be worsening.
“My son isn’t a normal baby and it’s tragic for any parent to know that his child will not survive for long,” said Lovelu.
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM
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