When Body Turns to Bone

Aug. 16, 2006 — -- Hayden Pheif came into this world six years ago at a healthy 7 pounds, 12 ounces, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was the first child born to John and Megan Pheif of Mill Valley, Calif.

"It was, you know, like any normal pregnancy. You're looking forward to the day that you have your first child," Megan Pheif said.

As most parents do with their first child, the Pheifs meticulously documented Hayden's every move. They never noticed anything unusual until Hayden was 2 years old.

"We were ready to go on a camping trip. And we noticed some swelling in his head. And so I took him to the doctor. By the end of the weekend, he couldn't move his neck," John said.

Hayden's story would sound familiar to Anna Marie and Mark Linker of North Carolina. A decade earlier, their baby daughter, Tiffany, was struck with the same strange symptoms, starting when she was 10 months old. Just like Hayden, Tiffany was put through dozens of tests that yielded no diagnosis.

"Tiffany wasn't moving very well. We just knew that something was wrong. We'd continue to go to doctors, and they'd continue to give us advice," said Mark.

Tiffany spent six months in the hospital; she underwent seven surgeries and chemotherapy to remove what doctors believed were tumors.

Suspecting cancer or some other strange disease, doctors continued operating on strange masses on Tiffany's back, but the surgeries failed and the masses kept growing back.

In June 1990, according to her mother, Anna Marie Linker, doctors "sent Tiffany home to die. They said she had two weeks to live." But there was one clue, something that had been overlooked at first: the toddler's big toes.

Hayden's father, John Pheif, remembered a nurse commented that Hayden's toes looked a little bit crooked when he was born. Hayden's toes eventually played a big part in unlocking this medical mystery. When doctors were getting ready to biopsy a mass on Hayden, a nurse overheard the family talking about his odd symptoms.

When she asked if Hayden's big toes were malformed and was told they were, the nurse said Hayden might have a condition called fibrodysplasia ossificans progessiva, or FOP.

Hayden's big toes were the hallmark of this rare and strange disease, of which there are only 2,500 known cases in the world.