A three-month-old baby boy born with a rare disease that left him without any skin below the neck could soon be receiving life-saving treatment.
Ja'bari Gray was born on New Year's Day in San Antonio, Texas, with his eyelids fused together and skin missing from almost everywhere except on his head.
Doctors at Methodist Children's Hospital put the infant on life support and told his parents, Priscilla Mondalo and Marvin Gray, there was nothing more they could do.
But the couple refused to accept this and, after a long-fought battle with their insurance company, secured their son a transfer to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.
The medical team at TCH believes doctors at the previous hospital misdiagnosed Ja'bari, delaying his treatment, reported the San Antonio Express-News.
Surgeons are now planning a procedure to open Ja'bari's airway so he can be taken off a ventilator and will then perform skin grafts to cover areas where skin hasn't grown yet.
Ja'bari Gray, three months, was born in January 2019 in San Antonio, Texas, with almost no skin below his neck. Pictured: Ja'bari with his mother, Priscilla Mondalo in April 2019
Doctors diagnosed the infant with aplasia cutis congenita, a condition in which there is the absence of skin at birth. Pictured: Ja'bari in April 2019
Mondalo, Ja'bari's mother, wrote in a post on GoFundMe that she suffered no complications throughout her pregnancy until around the 37-week mark when doctors noticed he wasn't gaining weight.
Her doctors at Methodist Children's Hospital decided to induce her but, on the morning of the procedure, Ja'bari's heart rate dropped so low that an emergency C-section was performed.
It was then that staff noticed something was very wrong. Ja'bari had skin on his head, neck and some on his legs - but none on his torso or arms.
He was diagnosed with aplasia cutis congenita, a condition in which there is absence of skin at birth.
Usually these patches, which resemble lesions or open wounds, occur on the scalp, but can also be found on the torso and limbs.
Aplasia cutis congenita affects about one in 10,000 newborns. The cause is unknown, but scientists believe it is a genetic disease.
After doctors told Ja'bari's parents that there was nothing more they could do, the couple petitioned a transfer to Texas Children's Hospital.
At first, Medicaid denied a transfer to TCH because it would be 'out of network', according to Fox San Antonio. But, one day later, the insurance company decided to approve it.
Family members told the news station that Medicaid was flooded with complaints after news broke about the denied transfer.
