An Arkansas woman with a rare genetic disorder fought her battle with life and miraculously gave birth to a healthy boy, which makes her the first U.S. citizen to do so with Harlequin Ichthyosis.
While it was a challenging task for the 21-year-old Arkansas woman to make it to adulthood, she became the first woman to deliver a healthy baby boy despite her rare genetic disorder. Stephanie Turner suffers from Harlequin Ichthyosis, an extremely rare disorder. Anyone with this condition rarely makes it to adulthood and for her to survive so long and give birth is nothing short of a miracle. Her condition has left her without the top layer of skin, any hair, or the ability to sweat.
Turner gave birth to a healthy 7-pound, 14-ounce boy, despite several complications during the last stage of her pregnancy. Turner's delivery was a painful one, after four days in labor and a Cesarean-section. The baby is three months old now and has been named William Kurtis Drake Turner.
"Couldn't get a piece of machinery to work because of her skin ... To help seal her vessels off after they opened her up ... They told us that the epidural wasn't working, and they were going to have to put her under ... And that nobody could be back there," said Kurt, William's father. "Me and her momma both kind of lost it ... A lot of prayer is what got us through it."
Turner recovered fully and the baby is healthy. Despite his mother carrying the rare genetic disorder, William does not have the disease as Kurt, the father does not carry the gene that triggers it. Stephanie's condition was due to a specific gene mutation in her parents, according to Kait8.com, ABC News affiliate.
The couple does not wish to take further risks with another pregnancy and would like to adopt in the future.
"We've already played it once. I don't want to do it again since we have so much to lose now ... I'm just going to tell him, Jesus made him white, other people different colors ... Just that God made everybody different. And he decided to let him have the red mommy," Turner said.
Turner is the second oldest U.S. citizen with Harlequin Ichthyosis and first to have delivered a baby.
