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Tarrell Sutherland is only four and a half years old but he has the world on his shoulders. Since birth, he’s been living with a rare condition; he is one of only three Belizeans known to have it. His clinical diagnosis is bullous congenital icthyosis eritthroderma. A big word for a condition where his skin simply falls off every day, like the scales of a fish. It is a miracle he is still alive and he’ll need another miracle to stay alive. It is a story to have to see to understand and so here goes.

Keith Swift Reporting,
He may look like any small playful child but Tarell Sutherland is in constant pain. Look at his feet and you can see that this 4 year old has an awful condition. It is a genetic skin disorder called ichthyosis and he was born with it. His mother Nicole McDougal explains.

Nicole McDougal, Mother
“He born normal and everything but six hours after he born he started to strip his skin from head to toe. He stayed like red like when you get burned and then he started to let go a substance, a green substance from his body and he couldn’t wear no clothes.”

Jules Vasquez,
“What did you think at the time when you saw him?”

Nicole McDougal,
“The first thing came to my mind that my baby won’t live.”

He lived but it is living with constant cringing pain. Just walking down the stairs causes pain because his skin is brittle and constantly breaking which leaves the flesh raw and infection prone. It is as bad as it looks – it’s probably worse, actually. Dermatologist Dr. Peter Craig says there is a defect in the epidermis.

Dr. Peter Craig, Dermatologist
“It is a faulty epidermis, it is faulty and as a result of that all the functions of the skin cannot be carried out. Skin has specific functions. We can look at maybe three of the six most important; one it keeps in fluids, it preserves the internal integrity of the fluids in your body. His epidermis is not in tact and therefore he loses fluids. The epidermal cells strip off, the epidermis is made of protein and that is the major defect. So he is losing protein. The skin also helps us in fighting infections. That is why he is always having skin infections.”

Nicole McDougal,
“He lives with pain everyday. They have days when he can take the pain and days when he can’t. The minute he tells you that he wants medicine, it is because he can’t take the pain no more.”

And while the illness is one thing, the social stigma is quite another.

Nicole McDougal,
“With the public itself sometimes hard because while riding on the bus with him people would like shrug and like watch a funny kind of way and skin up their face and thing like that. Which in I live with it because I learn to live with it but it is hard sometimes, it is hard.”

Hard in a way most of us would not imagine – when his skin erupts – which is everyday - his clothes and his shoes stick to him and they have to be painfully peeled off. Just taking a bath or breaking a sweat is unspeakably painful for him.

Nicole McDougal,
“They have time when his foot would actually bust open and like somebody just chop him on his foot and so and they have time when he smells. From the time you reach the door and his skin has an infection the whole house is like you know but we have to live with it, he is my child.”

Her child and her responsibility; this mother of 7 has been coping, if only just barely.

Nicole McDougal,
“I cry til I tired cry. They have times when I do still cry. There times when I still get emotional seeing him the punish. When times come to bathe him, I bathe him but with a weak heart and I don’t want him to see me cry but sometimes I would go one spot and I would just cry. Sometimes I feel like just go to the middle of the road and just scream out. It is frustrating, it is hard.”

And now after four difficult years, family is hoping for some relief through a connection with a medical center in Louisiana.

Nicole McDougal,
“Basically what we need to do is to get him to the States so that they could at least treat him to bring him. He won’t come normal like we but at least he will come to a certain extent where he could go to school where he could stop the scratch or stop the shredding the skin and the bursting of the feet and also so he could take different tests to see what really is the problem, what really is the type of icthyosis he has.”

Dr. Peter Craig,
“His condition can be treated whereby with special medication where the skin will not be that thick and that will allow him to walk better, he can go to school, he can hold his pens and pencils and learn. So yes there is, for quality of life, his quality of life will be tremendously improved by receiving treatment.”

The bad news according to Dr. Craig who has been treating Tarrell since birth is that even with treatment abroad there is no cure.

Dr. Peter Craig,
“There isn’t a cure for this disorder, remember this is a structural protein defect in the skin.”

Keith Swift,
“Is his life threatened by it?”

Dr. Peter Craig,
“It was previously. You see Tarrell, what you see now is considered good. There are times when his skin is just oozing pus from the skin infections and it is a miracle he survived those.

Tarrell has made remarkable steps that many children in these conditions would not even survive pass infancy, the first 12 months of life.”

Things are finally looking up, but still the downcast look on his face is understandable. You’d look that way too after sitting thru five interviews in a row. Despite his glum appearance, his mother said he’s an active good natured child and one for whom she has a modest dream.

Nicole McDougal,
“Well my dream for him is for the public to assist and so that he could go to the States and make him just you know, I know that he won’t look normal like we but at least he could have a normal life without scratching, without the skin bursting, so that he could bathe feeling normal like any other child, soaking in a tub of water and staying there and feeling comfortable. But for him he can’t do none of those things.”

Keith Swift,
“Will he ever be able to be a normal child?”

Dr. Peter Craig,
“As he gets older and he has it under better control, he should be able to handle his condition much better and I am sure Tarrell will be able to live a productive life.”

Tarrell will receive specialist care in Louisiana free of cost but he needs funds to get there and pay for medication and board which are costly. You can make contributions at the Atlantic Bank account number 211057247 or you can contact his mother Nicole McDougal at 668-8604. What’s interesting is that he has 6 other siblings and none of them, not even his three sisters born after him were born with the condition. Craig says he knows of only two others of Belizeans living with icthyosis.