Or a teenager with stumps for hands, the affected fingers long gone. People born with EB lack anchors that hold the layers of their skin together. As a consequence, any activity that rubs or causes pressure produces a painful sore akin to a second-degree burn. Many forms of EB are lethal in the first weeks or months of life. Most are mutilating over time.
Infection is a serious, ongoing concern.
As if the diagnosis is not heartbreaking enough, no treatment for EB has been effective. Parents have coped by protecting the child's skin with padded clothing as best they could and applying antibiotic ointment to the inevitable wounds that occurred. But because of extensive clinical research done by University of Miami dermatologists, the future for these patients looks, well, rosier, as a baby's cheek should. EB was one of the reasons Lawrence A. Schachner, M.D., director of pediatric dermatology, chose to enter his specialty field. As an intern, he was intensely frustrated by futile efforts to treat the disease, and made up his mind to do whatever he could to help these children.