An Australian three-year-old has become the youngest person in the world to be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Jahleel Marsh from Melbourne, Australia, was diagnosed with amino acid decarboxylase deficiency, known as 'children's Parkinson's disease', when he was three-and-a-half months old.
He has lived half his life in hospital.
Jahleel is also a quadriplegic who is unable to walk, talk or eat. He is tube-fed 24 hours a day.
His single mother, Rebecca Marsh, says she just wants to feel her son hug her back.
"He is such a sweet little boy. He can only smile a few minutes a day, but it's so lovely to get a glimpse into the beautiful boy he truly is. He will often just crack up laughing and it warms my heart. He can be so cheeky, but he is also super sweet and has such a gentle personality," she told Caters.
Doctors believe Jahleel won't make it to 10 years old without life-saving treatment.
"His chances of having it [children's Parkinson's disease] are one in 56 million, so it's incredibly rare," Rebecca said.
"Doctors told me not to Google anything about his condition. They said the life expectancy without treatment is around seven years old."
She said the condition leaves her three-year-old son "trapped" in his own body.
Rebecca has set up a fundraising page to scrape together the NZ$124,158 needed to pay for a pioneering treatment known as a 'gene therapy brain operation' in Poland.
