Disease Turns Muscle Into Bone: Joshua Scoble Fights For His Life (VIDEO)

Three-year-old Joshua Scoble is fighting a rare and disabling genetic disease that turns his muscle into bone. He tries to live as normal a life as possible but it's extremely difficult when any bruise can turn into bone, causing painful lumps all over his body. There is no known cure, but doctors are hopeful that with time they can develop specific genetic treatments that will allow Joshua to live a long and healthy life.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Send us tips! Write us at [e-mail] if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team.

Comments

[minimalist syntax]

07:25 PM on 10/15/2009

My heart goes out to this little boy and his family.

[HC4BO]

06:45 PM on 10/15/2009

With ALL the chemicals being released into the earth's atmosphere ....

I am NO LONGER SHOCKED by ANY Disease ...

[huffwit]

06:41 PM on 10/15/2009

FOP is abbreviation for Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva.

The official FOP website is:

http://www.ifopa.org

[savvysc]

06:24 PM on 10/15/2009

At about 30 seconds, a quiet piano song starts. I recognize this song from a movie.. I can't place it. Does anyone know what else this song is from?? It's driving me crazy.

[Schvenzlerman]

06:59 PM on 10/15/2009

It is Erik Satie's Variations on a Theme. You can listen to a clip of it at http://www.ccd.pl/sample/UDSACD2009/01.mp3.

[Hegemoneyhoney]

05:45 PM on 10/15/2009

I watched/listened to this video and heard the interviewer say that the family has fund-raising events but didn't hear any information about websites or how to contribute or anything else of that sort. It would be really useful to have that information and would be really wonderful if Huffington readers and others could do whatever possible to help this family. That adorable little boy and his loving parents - bless their hearts. I sat and cried while watching this interview but my tears and sad feelings do nothing to help them. If there is a website or other information for contributing, could someone post that for all of us to be aware of it and use it. This was a very moving story and my heart goes out to this family and that precious child.

[OkieIntellectual]

05:32 PM on 10/15/2009

Somebody needs to get Professor Xavier involved in this. Clearly this child has some mutant power that he cannot control yet, but once he learns to, look out! He could be a self-armoring super soldier.

[Hegemoneyhoney]

05:48 PM on 10/15/2009

Please. Please. For once, could the internet idiots who see everything as a weird opportunity to be mean, cruel, unfeeling, or - in their perverted view of the world - funny, could you please for once just not to do it. This is a child and a very hurting, loving family. Please, don't.

[OkieIntellectual]

09:58 PM on 10/15/2009

Too late, already done. No cruelty intended here. Hey, if you cannot find humor in the darkest of places, then I feel for you. Your world must be a dismal place indeed. When you've seen your best friends get blown to pieces by a roadside bomb, you have two choices... let it eat you up inside or learn to laugh.

[deminmo]

05:11 PM on 10/15/2009

My brother lived with this type of disease all of his life, in and
out of hospitals, under experimental medicines for the first few
years, until he aged out of the free programs. He had intense
pain most of the time, but refused strong pain killers. Yet, he was
able to attend college and get married the last three years of his
life, and he died in 2006 at age 47. Good luck to the family of this
boy. Hopefully the Shriners will help them as they did my brother.

[kk78]

04:05 PM on 10/15/2009

This is sad. i hate to see children suffer

[AnneMarie27]

02:59 PM on 10/15/2009

And this is why I don't believe in God anymore. I was a Christian for 50 years so there is not a platitude I don't know. While I have no problem with anyone believing whatever they choose to that encourages and comforts them, please, no sermon.

In the meantime, let's get on with stem-cell research. Let's take the billions spent on idiotic wars and put it in all the places where it can do the most good. Let's regulate every group, commission, lobby receiving money from the government (us) and giving money to any person or entity associated with the government (us).

Take care, Joshua. You are a little hero.

[Killjoy]

03:08 PM on 10/15/2009

Please come back to earth.

[liarsclub75]

04:45 PM on 10/15/2009

She is. What cloud are you on?

[Jolimont]

03:20 PM on 10/15/2009

I'm with you AnneMarie, since god's off to lunch of this poor kid's case, maybe stem cell or science can do something for him.

[OkieIntellectual]

05:29 PM on 10/15/2009

Oh but don't you know, this is all part of god's plan. Like the saying goes, "god don't make no mistakes." God created this child with this disease for a reason, dont'cha know, and we don't always understand why, but we have to trust in god that its all part of his plan.

That was total sarcasm, BTW. However, here's a thought. Supposing this "god" does exist... what if all the folks who believe in such a deity have it wrong? What if god is actually a real prick who sees us the same way a small boy with a magnifying glass sees an ant hill on a sunny day... as something to frak with for fun? What if good things happen because god's attention is elsewhere or he just got bored with "frying ants" here and went off to mess with some other civilization somewhere else in the universe for a while?

No one ever seems to ask that question... what if god really doesn't like us much?

Of course, that's all based on the preposterous idea that such a being exists in the first place.

[Educatedbro82]

02:32 PM on 10/15/2009

He is such a cute little man! It is so sad that this is happening to him. I am glad he is still getting a chance to be a kid, but I wish it was better for him.

[Suntio]

01:55 PM on 10/15/2009

My heart breaks for this little boy and his parents. As a parent myself, I can only imagine how hard it must be to be told that there's no cure for your child and I pray. I don't think there's a pain worse than that of having to watch your child die knowing there's nothing you can do about it. All the best wishes to them and hopefully something can be found/done to allow this little boy to live.

[sparky73]

01:37 PM on 10/15/2009

such a shame. I cant help but to think that if Al Gore wasn't illegally denied the Presidency things might have been better for this child

[JakeHanson]

01:14 PM on 10/15/2009

A heart-wrenching story...my heart goes out to this kid and his family.

I'm surprised the trolls haven't come out from their bridges spewing out the usual "God works a mysterious ways" BS. No one should have to go through this.

[magnoliabird]

01:46 PM on 10/15/2009

Fanned! So well put

[duchac]

01:08 PM on 10/15/2009

They had a storyline on Grey's Anatomy involving a woman with the EXACT same disease! I thought it was a made up story for entertainment value....
If I remember correctly, the woman died in the episode because there is no cure...god, poor kid. He's so cute too

[JonShank]

12:51 PM on 10/15/2009

That is horrid. That poor little guy...