Meet the six-year-old made from glass
This little battler has broken hundreds of bones in her lifetime
Imagine being so delicate that your bones could break in the wind.
This is the reality for little Zoe Lush, who suffers from a very rare condition that resulted in her breaking several bones while she was still in the womb, shattering her collarbone during birth and breaking up to 100 bones before she was one.
‘Zoe is very fragile... There have been some close calls but she astonishes us every single day,’ says Zoe’s mum Chelsea.
The condition – called osteogenesis imperfecta, and caused by a gene mutation – means that Zoe, now six, can break a rib from simply sneezing, and a fall can be catastrophic.
Chelsea, 27, from Huntington Beach, California, was just 20 years old when she fell pregnant, and doctors advised her to abort her baby.
‘We were doing a 4D ultrasound and they were able to see her multiple fractures that were fresh and healing already. She had broken ribs, the arms and legs were about six weeks behind where they should have been. They told us she had a severe condition and [may not] make it to her birth date.’
Chelsea went against medical advice and gave birth to Zoe by caesarean in 2010.
But the early days were not without their challenges for the new parents.
‘When we were changing Zoe’s [nappies]... it took three of us,’ reveals Zoe’s father Curtis, 28. ‘One person to lift her pelvis, one person to slide the [nappy] in and out and then another person to hold her arms because babies have startle reflex. I was on arms duty and she startled in to my hand. Her radius just snapped – it sounded like a chicken bone.’
Now Zoe attends physical therapy, and her stronger muscles have begun to protect her bones, meaning the fractures are less frequent than they were. She’s also had metal rods inserted into her limbs and in July last year she had a cervical spinal fusion and has since worn a neck brace, which will be removed later this month.
But despite the challenges she faces daily, Zoe is a bright and happy child who enjoys baking, painting and playing with her brother Felix, three.
Although OI is incurable, her parents hope that research will give her a brighter future.
‘I would not change Zoe and I would never ever take anything back,’ Chelsea says. ‘I know it’s hard for her but every human goes through hard things.’