‘It hurts, but I have to go through it’: Las Vegas child can’t close eyes with rare skin condition

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - In life, we can sometimes take the little things for granted such as having the ability to walk outside or being able to rest when our body needs to.

However, for one little boy in the Las Vegas area, those normal things come as a challenge.

Carter is 7-years-old and is your average kid. FOX5 was able to spend an afternoon with Carter to get to know his personality and how he is dealing with the rare skin condition that he was born with.

We soon realized, even though this little boy has a lot on his plate, he stronger than many of us.

“My skin was hurting super bad when I woke up,” Carter said.

Carter was born with two rare skin conditions called lamellar ichthyosis and ectropion. He was diagnosed with autism later.

“His body over produces skin at rapid rate but his skin cell turnover isn’t up to par to release the dead skin cells,” his mom Shai Bresee said.

Carter’s skin condition is far beyond just severe dry skin, his mom tells FOX5 she has to moisturize Carter up to seven times a day with special products.

“We have to be very careful because we can cause more damage than good over exfoliating,” Bresee said.

Even if his skin is soothed, Carter has another challenge that his mom can’t make better.

“His skin is so dry and tight that it pulls his upper lids basically flat,” Bresee said.

Carter has not been able to close his eye lids since he was born. He has to sleep with his eyes open.

“Why does such a great kid have to go through all of these every day struggles just to experience these normal day to day things,” Bresee said.

This summer Carter will get a skin graft surgery on his eye lids so he can hopefully close them for the very first time.

“I’m going through a lot. It hurts, but I have to go through it until I get surgery and then it won’t really hurt anymore.” Carter said.

For it to not hurt anymore, the family will have to travel to San Diego for surgery, but it will get costly for the family which is why they are asking for help through this GoFundMe.

“He will struggle no matter what we do so all we can do is help him struggle with less things,” Bresee said.

Even through all the pain, Carter is still your every day kid. He tells FOX5, he likes to play video games, watch the Vegas Golden Knights and chill at home.

When we told him he is like a real life super hero with how strong he is, he agreed.

Carter’s condition makes his skin so sensitive it is hard to play in the park like the other kids, and when he does he has to wear a cooling vest.

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