Miracle boy, 7, is given a whole new skin

IN AN induced coma after losing 80% of his skin to a rare genetic condition, sevenyear-old Hassan was close to death.

But now doctors have saved him after growing an almost completely new skin for him in the laboratory.

Hassan, whose family’s full name has not been released, suffered from ‘butterfly disease’, which makes human skin as delicate as the insect’s wings and likely to blister and peel off at the slightest touch.

He has been covered in blisters and wounds since he was a few days old and before the operation most of his body looked like an open wound.

Doctors grew a new skin in a laboratory using stem cells genetically altered to eliminate the flaw that causes the disease. In what has been described as a major breakthrough in the use of stem cells to treat disease, this was then successfully transplanted onto Hassan’s body.

Now, 21 months later, having been admitted to a hospital burns unit close to death, he appears to be fully recovered.

His new skin has successfully ‘anchored’ to his body without the symptoms that have plagued him his whole life.

Born in Syria and now living in Germany, he is now able to play soccer and other games with his friends. His father said the transformation was ‘like a dream’, adding: ‘Hassan feels like a normal person now – he’s enjoying his life.’

The youngster suffers from the disease junctional epidermolysis bullosa – which until now was considered incurable. Around 40% of children who have the condition do not survive their first year.

In two operations in late 2015, doctors at Bochum University Hospital in Germany used skin created in Italy, by Dr Michele De Luca of the University of Modena.

Before the surgery, doctors took a small piece of skin of around half a square inch from an unaffected part of Hassan’s body and used gene ‘editing’ to correct it. They then grew more than nine square feet of skin to transplant.

Details of the treatment appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

Plastic surgeon Professor Tobias Hirsch, of Bochum Children’s Hospital, described Hassan’s critical condition when he was admitted to the burns unit, saying: ‘He’d lost nearly two-thirds of his skin. After two months we were absolutely sure we could do nothing for this kid and he would die.’

However, he now has ‘good-quality’ skin that requires no treatment.

‘We were sure we could do nothing for him’