Hu Juan, a 28-year-old mother from Henan Province, has come to a Shanghai plastic surgery clinic in search of a cure for a rare condition that's made her age over four decades within just half a year.
With the appearance of a 70-year-old with wrinkled and sagging skin, Hu was even mistaken for her husband's mother when the two sat in the hospital waiting room.
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“Aging is supposed to be a lifelong process, but for me it happened within couple of months,” Hu recalled as she traced her memory back to 2003, when the mysterious illness first struck her.
“After giving birth to my first child, I felt something different on the skin of my neck. It became very loose, but I thought it might just be one of the postpartum changes, so I ignored it.”
In the following 6 months, however, her symptoms started to show more on her face and became increasingly severe, though no other physical changes occurred elsewhere.
“I thought having a second child could somehow end this, and maybe turn back the clock, but now that I have my baby girl my skin condition just keeps getting worse.”
Ultimately, Hu was diagnosed as having acquired Cutis Laxa, a rare condition found only once before in China.
As a victim of this rare illness, Hu has been suffering all sorts of indignation. “My son no longer wanted me to pick him up from school; I can't use my ID card anymore because everybody thinks it’s a fake. It’s impossible to reason with them so I've applied for a new one.”
The hospital has now formed a panel of experts to consult Hu Juan’s case and work out a specific surgical plan. The panel admits that, with limited knowledge so far, plastic surgery could be the only option. One of the experts also pointed out that it's not only Hu’s physical recovery, but also her psychological condition that requires attention.
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