Baby With Rare Illness Can't Be Hugged - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

A baby in Washington state has been born with a rare condition that has only been reported in 14 cases. The condition makes it so that the baby cannot be hugged too tightly, and the parents have to be extra careful with handling the 7 month old. The rare condition is characterized by a hardening of the baby’s blood vessels, muscles and skin.

Nine weeks after the baby was born, the mother says a geneticist figured out what was wrong and contacted a team of doctors in Belgium. The Belgian doctors are the only practitioners in the world known to have a treatment for the extremely rare condition.

The family traveled to Belgium to meet with the doctors, and now they are thinking of moving there to continue the treatment, which could last up to three years. People in the family’s hometown in Washington are chipping in to help them out with medical expenses, including a drag-racing fan who is selling his 1957 Chevy Bel-Air and will donate the proceeds to the family.