One-year-old Layak dies after struggling with rare disease

Yunus Layak Farah has died at the age of one year after struggling with a rare and severe genetic disorder that affects the skin.

Layak’s mother, Hawwa Ula Ibrahim confirmed her son’s death in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning.

Layak was born with harlequin ichthyosis, a severe genetic disorder that affects the skin. Infants with the condition are born prematurely with very hard, thick skin covering most of their bodies.

Layak’s condition began to deteriorate after he contracted pneumonia in March. His family took him to India’s Bangalore, and discovered following testing that he had a blood infection. He was treated at the ICU earlier this week.

In a Facebook post back in March, Ula wrote that she did not know if her son could survive or not, but the hospital needed to work to alleviate the child’s suffering for as long as he was alive.