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“He was missing skin on most of his limbs... screaming violently...”

Meet Easton Friedel

Baby Easton was born August 23rd, 2012 at Auburn Memorial Hospital and immediately his parents knew something was wrong. He was missing skin on most of his limbs, covered in scary, deep red, open wounds. He came out screaming violently, his weak five-pound, fifteen-ounce body shaking because of the unbearable pain. Auburn Memorial hospital had never seen a case like this so he was transferred to Crouse, where the doctor had only seen 2 in his entire career.

Baby Easton was unable to even take a pacifier for comfort because the friction of it against his skin left his lips blistered immediately…so they had to put in a feeding tube and his mom will have to pump instead of nursing him. His pain was eventually controlled with a combination of morphine and Tylenol, and he is on antiobiotics to try and prevent infection from his many open wounds. He is getting new blisters from being cleaned after he goes potty…and needs to be medicated to tolerate the pain of cleaning him up. Changing his bandages is also extremely painful and calls for more morephine. The drs are talking about moving him from NY to Cinncinati Children’s hospital. He is the worst case they have ever seen.

He was quickly diagnosed with a severe form of Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). EB is a rare genetic skin disease (affecting only 1 out of 50,000 births). In this condition, there is a defect in the connective tissue of the skin and mucous membranes that causes the skin to be so fragile that the slightest friction, minor injury, heat, rubbing, or scratching causes severe blistering —inside (such as the mouth, stomach, esophagus) and outside the body. These blisters can cause serious, sometimes fatal problems, when they become infected. The systemic and repetitive nature of the blistering leads to blindness, swallowing and breathing difficulties, scarring, infection, disfigurement, disability and dehydration. Ultimately, such devastating effects can produce a high rate of mortality. In fact, 87% of babies born with one of the more severe forms of EB do not live more than 12 months. There is NO cure for this horrific disease. Sufferers of EB have compared the sores with third-degree burns. They live in unthinkable pain.

Easton will require extensive and expensive medical care and supplies his entire life. Many of his medical supplies are not covered by insurance. For example…the bandages alone that he will need to cover his blisters and protect his skin are as much as $10,000 a month and insurance only covers about $1,500 of those.

Easton has three older brothers, Logan, Carter, and Blake, and has two loving parents, Jared and Danielle. One cannot even begin to imagine what the parents must be going through. The shock of his diagnosis; the uncertainy of what his future holds; the heart wrenching pain and feeling of helplessness at seeing their newborn baby hurting and not being able to hold him, nurse him, comfort him, or take away his pain. Easton’s father works in a factory and doesn’t make much over minimum wage. The factory he works at will be closing within a year and he will be without work unless he transfers with the company across the country from NY to OK. He is taking a week or two off to help his wife as they transition home and learn to care for baby Easton and their 3 other boys. His mom will not be able to work and her days will be dedicated to loving Easton and his 3 brothers, and the arduous and extensive care Easton’s illness will require.

His parents need to concentrate on caring for their fragile baby. I pray we can help relieve some of this financial burden so their sweet boy can have the medical supplies he needs to help ease that pain and try to keep his blistering under control, healing, and uninfected as much as possible.

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE in Easton’s life. He desperately needs our help.

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