I'm 20 But Look 60 | Our Life

zara hartsawn is only 16 years old she has a rare genetic disorder a medical condition that makes her old before her time i don't like meeting new people people's reactions have shredded zara's self-confidence she was kicked and punched in school i started getting called granny monkey people can be so cruel teenage zara dreams of a quick cosmetic fix she has beautiful smooth skin there's just too much of it her mum tracy has the same illness and wants zara to face the damage it can cause what if we've got cancer so long so what if we've got diabetes and so what if we're going blind zara the point being is it end of day right you're in going blind they don't know whether the disease will disable zara or even shorten her life tracy wants answers but zara is scared of what she might be told what do i do if i don't want to wear it then i don't know zara because the end of day you've got to know a trip to america offers unique medical care and almost four years after this journey we catch up with zara to see if it changed her life [Music] zara hartsawn has a rare medical condition that makes her look decades older than she really is despite her best efforts she is often mistaken for a woman in her 40s or 50s but zara is just 16 years old looking old is a big problem especially at school it would just begin in a year eight and obviously he changed teachers i had a new geography teacher and i walked in and he passed me a lesson plan yeah i went what he went hey you're an assistant teacher you know yeah i went no i'm a student relentless bullying made school a nightmare in between ages eight and ten that were worst stage of my life with bullying and stuff i started getting called granny and monkey let's just do scrub says and cry on me because that's what my mom taught me don't let them see you cry [Music] zara's confidence is in shreds and she lives in fear of meeting strangers [Music] i'm scared about someone asking me how old i am it terrifies me because i think if i tell them then they're not going to believe me and then i'm going to look like india i don't like getting on buses i absolutely hate buses you've got makeup on and everyone just looks at you and like thinks oh she's like a middle-aged woman really trying to like look younger i sometimes do think oh i wonder what it'd be like to be normal whatever normal is zara inherited her disease from her mother tracy who's often mistaken for a pensioner although she's just 43. when people look at you the first thing they see is your face they don't wait to hear any explanations as to why you look that way to judge you when tracy was a little girl doctors diagnosed her loose skin as the loss of fat cells from a rare genetic condition lipodystrophy growing up in the 70s there was no medical treatment for tracy and in the 80s as an expectant mother she wasn't warned that her children were at risk of inheriting her condition before i decided to have children i didn't realize that i would actually pass the unsung tracy has seven children of the four girls rosie 20 and chloe 17 have not inherited the condition zara has and so has 23 year old jolene at each birth tracy hoped her baby would not have the disease when zara was born i actually didn't think that she actually had the lipid dystrophy at all she were quite a cute baby actually but as time went by you just couldn't get rid of the saggy skin and the double chins and things like that that she actually had but loose skin is just the outward sign of a condition that can also have life-threatening complications zara has a heart murmur and suffers shortness of breath during exercise you can't begin to imagine how it feels to actually have a child that's born with an illness especially an illness that you actually suffer from yourself you blame yourself you come to a stage of self-loathing for actually burdening them with the [Music] illness affected is zara's big sister jolene i've had some seriously life-threatening things happen i developed emphysema at 21. and then just a couple of months ago i had two mini strokes it's scary at 23 to think that at this age it can happen is this what lies ahead for zara having never seen a doctor about her condition she just doesn't know obviously they they must have got illness a lot more worse than me i think it might just be because i'm younger so i'm not getting full effects for it yet tracy understands that a healthy future for zara depends on getting expert medical help i don't know very much at all about the long-term effects of lip dystrophy i'd like to but it does scare me but zara is focused only on the short term cosmetic surgery on her face i feel like [Music] if i don't do something about it then i'm not gonna go nowhere teenagers a zara hartsawn has inherited a rare genetic condition it makes her look old and may severely damage her health but zara is determined not to end up like her mum looking like a pensioner at 43 and living on benefits i never realized it ended up like this [Music] for zara cosmetically changing her appearance is key firstly dealing with her rotten teeth once my teeth are done i probably won't care what people think no more because then at least i won't have teeth like this and i'll have a nice smile hopefully in future i will have more surgery but a minute i just want my teeth doing and to see where everything goes after that see what happens zara's hoping new teeth will give her a smile she can be proud of and provide her with the confidence she needs to tackle the outside world for zara the results are life-changing that doesn't look too bad there's a little bit of an air bubble there can we just fill that in i think [Music] so it's totally different it looks you know strange she hadn't smiled like that for ages because her face is beaming she's little it's like she's been woke back up gwan's ass gives a smile very weird [Music] zara's successful dental work has fueled her interest in cosmetic surgery so much younger look at hers since she was 12 zara has dreamed of having a facelift i think it's like one of the things that i want most in life if i got told that my tea for it i wouldn't be happier at 16 zara is just 10 months younger than her sister chloe who has not inherited the genetic condition they are window shopping just 16 year old though and having the nose job yeah but you're only 16. yeah but she's got no wrong words yet i mean it's like the same sort of shape as man but mine's more of a beak what time is it like you've got already good nails here i like your nails every girl worries about the looks don't they zara's mom tracy takes a very different view she's wary of cosmetic surgery having had a facelift herself as a child i ended up having a facelift and still you know being scarred so in a way i was worse off than what i went before i started so tracy thinks it's zara's illness and not her looks that might get in her way what she doesn't know is how to fight it i don't know very much at all about the long-term effects of lip dystrophy i'd like to but it does scare me tracy has never had her children formally diagnosed with lipodystrophy so zara is ignorant of its serious medical complications i've never seen anyone about lipidustrafair all i know about it is that we've got no fat tissue under his skin that's all i know i don't know no else about it but zara needs to protect her fragile health and goes to find out about lipodystrophy online something she's never done before good thing about it is i'm gonna find stuff out that i can deal with like straight away but bad stuff is that there's gonna be stuff that i don't wanna know about that i probably can't deal with zara discovers that lipodystrophy is caused by a gene mutation which badly affects fat cells she's surprised that although people with lipitostrophe appear very thin the health risks are similar to people who are very fat diabetes heart attacks and strokes as well as fatty cirrhosis of the liver [Music] i just think it's it's scary zara's internet search has led her to the lipodystrophy research center in dallas texas [Music] dr abu garg has been researching lipodystrophy for over 25 years after zara's search tracy spoke to dr garg on the phone he's invited her and zara to texas for lipodystrophy tests in a few weeks time he's asked her 17 year old sister chloe to come too so he can examine a genetically unaffected family member tracy decides it's vital they go to get the definitive diagnosis they've never really had but zara is reluctant to face what they might discover and the things that we're actually going to find out are going to be life-changing because some of these results are not really going to be what we'd like to hear so what do i do if i don't want to wear it then if i don't want to know well i don't know zara because the end of day you've got to know yeah but i don't want to get there and then to just be like oh yeah well um you're going to live this long and you've got this and you've got that and you've got this and you've got that so what if we've got cancer so long so what if we've got diabetes so what if we're going blind zara the point being is it end of day right going blind well there's all sorts of things that it can cause but it doesn't mean that it's definitely going to happen right if we know that something's going to happen years before it happens then we can get it fixed [Music] today tracy zara and her sister chloe leave for america for their consultation with lipodystrophy expert dr garg zara is reluctant she's frightened of the serious medical issues he might discover but her sister jolene who's the worst affected knows the medical tests in america are vital to zara's future i really really think it is very very important that zara goes to america to to have these tests to gain as much information as you possibly can so that when she is older and when she does get to my age and if these are problems that she does after phase she'll be prepared i have to know for my kids as sakes and for them to be able to learn to cope rather than just stumble along as i've been doing [Music] but for zara the usa does offer one attraction she has an appointment to consult a cosmetic surgeon in texas bye everybody joe she's gonna come back we're gonna have a brand new little sister it's my only chance because i just look at my mum if she hadn't had a career and she had offered stuff that she wanted from life like i am grabbing everything i can with barrel fans because i know that my mum can't love you [Music] it's the first time the family have been to america so they take the opportunity to enjoy some of the texas culture [Music] but this is no holiday they're here in order to get some answers to the long-term medical problems of lipodystrophy wow even trucks are different they're in dallas to meet lipodystrophy expert dr abu garg at the university of texas southwestern medical center [Music] for over 25 years dr garg has studied lipodystrophy and the diseases it can cause he will analyze their dna and put them through a series of medical tests to establish sarah's long-term health hi doctor how are you stacy very nice we spoke on the phone very nice i'm not actually looking forward to the tests at all i'm willing obviously to do the test because i need to know we've come to that stage in my life and in my three children's lives that we need answers when he examines them dr garg is surprised you have plenty of loose skin on your body starting from the face where it is showing up as skin creases actually and even at the neck yeah so when i pinch it and i leave it it doesn't even go back to normal like that you know it stays tinted for a very very long time so it looks like the skin has lost the elastic property as lipodystrophy destroys fat cells beneath the skin loose skin can result but this amount is unusual tracy at 43 has the skin of an 80 year old but what about zara here is a pinch and i lose it and it takes a while to go down so your skin shows a little bit more elasticity than your mom but still the elasticity is little bit less we're going to compare it to chloe's hand now as soon as i pinch and i leave it it goes back to the normal state very quickly zara's skin is actually old before its time which is not typical of lipodystrophy so we were thinking either it is extremely unusual lipodystrophy that i have never seen before or it could be another disorder which is mimicking lipodystrophy dr garg has real doubts about tracy's childhood diagnosis his medical investigation will prove whether they have lipodystrophy or something else [Music] first they must swallow a very sweet glucose drink to test their body's response to insulin precisely that's why you've got 10 minutes to drink it hourly blood tests will tell dr garg whether to rule diabetes in or out next he tests the levels of fat under zara's skin the subcutaneous fat so often depleted in lipodystrophy [Music] finally he orders a comprehensive mri scan to see their internal organs and find out exactly where their body fat is [Music] dr garg needs time to evaluate the test results to quell or confirm his doubts about a diagnosis of lipodystrophy [Music] there's a lot at stake for tracy and zara the medical complications of lipodystrophy liver damage heart attack stroke and diabetes are life-threatening they must wait to hear their fate [Music] sixteen-year-old zara hartsawn has traveled 5000 miles from rotherham in south yorkshire to texas in a bid to unearth the facts of the rare genetic condition that has blighted her and her family all their lives zara has also accepted an invitation from cosmetic surgeon dr robert ursek in a hope that he can reverse the premature aging caused by her condition looking forward to meeting dr jersey i'm just proud of like nervous because i don't know what to expect so i'm like curious about what it can do for me as a teen tracy pinned her hopes on plastic surgery only to be disappointed she now fears for her daughter if she decides to go through with it come on they don't want to meet you with loads of tears in your eyes good morning girls you're sarah yeah you're 15 years old 16. oh my goodness time goes by huh and your sister of course looks just completely normal and she's seven years older i'm 17. oh so you're only one year older oh just one year older but what a difference huh yeah yeah quite a difference she has beautiful smooth skin in fact it's flawless there's just too much of it turn your face towards me dr ursek has given facelifts to hundreds of aging clients although zara's skin is loose and inelastic like an old person's dr ursek has never contemplated a facelift on a 16 year old before and what i recommend doing in your case is a braille lift which will open up your eyes just like that such pretty eyes and the other thing that'll make such a big difference is to do what we call a face lift where we just pull the skin up like this and you can see you've probably done this in the mirror huh see what a difference that makes and while we're there i want to take this nose and make it a little thinner right here and take this round hump out of that it's okay i've got a nervous well you were allowed to be nervous a fight let's go now look up at the ceiling with your eyeballs just like that see this fat bulge mother right here it's far more than zara ever dreamed possible and far more than the family can possibly afford pull the skin up back like this we will get a much smoother nicer younger looking result younger than 16 well you got to start somewhere relishing a challenge and keen to help dr ursek offers zara a deal if she promises to have a professional photo shoot for his post-op portfolio he will give his services free of charge surgery is booked for one week's time zara is excited about the surgery but tracy still has mixed emotions i'm happy for you that it's happening yeah but as your mum i don't know in my art of arts i'll just keep sorry that i've always had but i'll move on and learn to live with fact that you are changing you're growing into a young woman and you're obviously not happy or at peace with yourself as you look now but before zara's surgery the family must return to ut southwestern medical center in dallas dr garg is ready with their test results i'm actually not looking forward to finding out my test results personal results but i have to i have to know for my kids sakes [Music] this is a different way of looking at your body fat dr garg is examining zara's mri scan showing slices across her entire body the white areas show her body fat and the surprise is there's quite a lot of it now we are looking at both your arms and you see how nicely you have fat all around and you have reasonable fat in the back and in the hip area what dr garg is telling zara goes against everything she has ever been told is wrong with her he can see fat under her skin which with lipodystrophy she just wouldn't have tracy and zara have always blamed lack of fat under their skin for making them look so old you can see that you have pretty decent amount of fat in the back of your head in the neck and under your chin so this is this is pretty much what we will call normal fat distribution dr garg is no longer in doubt they do not have lipodystrophy it's good news as they don't have its serious complications but tracy and zara do still have an unexplored genetic condition which may cause serious medical problems of its own i know what do you think that it is we were thinking more on the lines of cutislaxa cutis laxa is an even rarer genetic condition than lipodystrophy and affects more than just skin [Music] serious medical complications compromise the heart and lungs cutis laxa is so rare that even dr garg has never seen a case before tracy's transatlantic quest for answers has only raised more questions about damage to their health we haven't really got lipodystrophy but we've got kill dyslexia i'm just worried more worried now what the implications are for the emphysema and the lung disease as well as the heart disease which seems to be in different stages of each and every one of us they haven't really changed though if you ask me yeah it has yeah i'm for me i don't feel any different it just puts me in the turmoil now stunned by the surprise diagnosis they can't even begin to assimilate the long-term medical consequences and tomorrow is the day scheduled for zara's cosmetic surgery [Music] i've just got to rub this up if it fights some of the antiseptic awesomeness i'm not sure what it is i've got confidence in zara and then knowing what she wants and and she's you know definitely wants this it's a clean skin properly for i haven't done [Music] i think my fears are more or else she's going to change i like her it feels to me psychologically that i'm losing a child and getting another one in her place i can't explain why i feel that way at all but it's not a face that i've looked at for the last 16 years that face is not going to be faced i've known [Music] i know it's going to change i don't think i'll obviously won't love her any less but it's just gonna be strange and and obviously i'm gonna have to get used to it [Music] i want to know that you know what you're doing i don't know what i'm doing i'm 100 sure that you ought to go through with it yeah with the surgery yeah yeah okay oh [Music] love you bye see you later [Music] there's no turning back now but will zara's new face really help her start a new life or will she like tracy be disappointed [Music] it's a nervous time for mum tracy and sister chloe they can only wait to see whether dr ursek can reverse the effects of zara's rare genetic condition and create the face she has always dreamed of [Music] just four hours later the wait is over safe everything is okay we're just about finished we just have to put some tapes on so she's gift wrapped tracy is worried as a child her cosmetic surgery did not turn out well she hopes that zara won't be disappointed [Music] zara needs rest and quiet to recover from the surgery dr ursek has assured her she will heal very quickly but that doesn't mean zara finds it easy the headset isn't over years and all around the net feels like i'm being strangled and then this plastic thing that's on my nails is going off in the eye and irritating me i i'm looking forward to having it took off because it's just agitating me now and irritating it's only been a few days since the surgery but already it's time to return to the clinic for the dressings to be removed [Music] it's the moment of truth will zara see the face she's always dreamed of trying to think what she looks like now she looks totally different she's not like anybody at all now i want you to give a big big smile and then whistle i can't do that yet it's totally transformed how you look through the swelling and bruising zara has only a glimpse of her new face she's had to wait a few more days to see how she's been changed i'm worried i'm not going to light my nose or it's going to be too big for my face oh great well you know what the big deal is here the big deal is to remove that cast off your nose and it is a big deal how people react to her face has ruined zara's life oh my god that is beautiful so that is amazing that is very nice what are you doing looking at your phone [Music] you didn't admire yourself for a few minutes what a joy huh i feel a lot better now than i did yesterday now i've seen my nose i love it it's so different it's more than what i thought it was gonna be [Music] but so far i'm happy back home zara is making good her end of the deal with the cosmetic surgeon dr ursek first class makeup and professional photography for his before and after photo library i feel different i look at miranda i expect to see old me but it's not there she just looks absolutely angelic she looks beautiful i feel a lot easier meeting new people [Music] if she stays on the ball medically and has regular checkups regular intervals i think then nothing should be able to alter her back despite her facelift sarah's genetic illness remains unchanged and as she moves into adulthood the question remains how will cutis laxa affect her life since the surgery the last four years have been a mixed bag for zara she has changed and there have been some dramatic events in her life [Music] lola come on [Music] when i came back from the states life was completely different it was amazing i had so much confidence got in a relationship i got pregnant i were happy we're having a baby everything was going well but her confidence has taken a knock unfortunately i had a miscarriage and now i'm no longer in a relationship three and a half years later and zara is no longer on speaking terms with her family following a feud i do feel alone at the moment like i ain't got a lot of people around me and cutis laxa has been the furthest thing from her mind since i found out i had cute dyslexia i have literally done nothing about it nothing the last time i saw a doctor was in texas which isn't good that's three and a half years my elf does worry me but only when i think about it like most of time i'm oblivious to it which isn't a good thing you're not going to be ready you i am what single and alone zara is now staying with her best mate katrina and tonight is a girl's night out you can't do it now 20 zara still has fears about venturing outside and meeting new people despite her face lift but worryingly that too is starting to suffer from the effects of cutis laxa the facelift has dropped in itself like ear that has my own i don't like it it's horrible it makes me feel old oh is it short it's just i've ever wore in my life don't start those shorts were shorter than that oh they were actually when i go out i don't worry about my health at all i i don't even think about it i just think i'm 20 i'm going to have fun cheesy chips i'm going to bitter on it i'm going to act 20. i don't care despite her determination to live a normal life zara is not like the other girls her age and her health is continuing to deteriorate do you feel like you're getting worse or do you feel the same as you did before well i know my lungs are getting worse and my legs and my arms i don't know about my art aren't you worried because you've never been and been checked up since you've been back not really because if i admit it then i've got to face it i'd rather just pretend i'm fine and not be scared do you feel like now's the time in your life then get some answers i thought it still scares me because then i've got to sit there and talk to someone which means admitting it to myself and then i've got to wear answers zarano ain't scared chin up i'm not scared when he comes to that mate i'm terrified no no need to be if yeah and i'll be there as the weeks and months have passed by the specter of the condition has deeply affected zara she's decided to do something about it a quick search of the internet leads her back to the united states and to the cutest laksa research study led by dr zolts urban zara reaches out to dr urban and they agree to have a video call [Music] hi sarah hello it's the first time in more than three and a half years that zara will talk to an expert about the illness that has blighted her since birth is like a valve in your art like called the aorta and in this illness apparently it can just explode and you die instantly yeah that is possible the main blood vessel that supplies connects the heart to the rest of the body and in curious next it can be enlarged there is a risk of an aorta rupture and that is very dangerous last time i had an art scan was in texas that was three and a half years ago i definitely recommend that you see a cardiologist and ask for an evaluation using other sounds for zara the dangers associated with cutis laksa have finally been brought into perspective i'm glad i spoke to him i'm just in a whirlwind like i don't know what i'm feeling it is actually a serious illness and i didn't even i disregard it like it's it's not even serious i'm more scared now than i've ever been i'm terrified i'm terrified it's been nearly four years since zara last saw a doctor and so she has no idea what state her health is in but she's finally taken the massive decision to find out what life has in store for her zara's deepest fears may be about to be realized dr lethal necessarily pleased me have a seat thank you well the reason you're here today in a heart clinic is because there's a there's an association between a potentially serious heart problem and the genetic condition that you have so just in terms of cleaning it on here i mean the heart the heart is here and then it feeds blood into the aorta the hose pipe up here and it's really this pipe that can swell or get enlarged if you've got weak connective tissue so how life threatening is if that valve like blows this is game over so yeah it is potentially lethal condition so the purpose of today's exercise to do a couple of tests i feel nervous very nervous what's gonna happen our results gonna be good or bad i'm scared i think i'm more nervous because i'm on my own [Music] the echocardiogram uses sound waves to paint a picture of zara's heart this allows dr letham to see if her aorta is expanding or swelling due to the lack of elastic fibers within the artery well done while the images are analyzed it's a nervous wait for zara all right i have a seat thank you so it's good news is it oh yeah i'm not gonna die no you're not gonna die so the good news is that your aorta is completely enormous but we want you to remain well and there are various things that you probably ought to be doing to stay well definitely the smoking at least have a go at stopping i'm just relieved yeah yeah well it's good news isn't it that's very very hearts perfect yeah your heart's perfect so let's hope you can keep it that way [Music] unbuzzing the film trainer hello guess what what me art's perfectly healthier there's no wrong with my heart at all i'm not gonna die in all honesty i don't blame anybody for this illness i believe as daft as it sounds like everyone's born the way they are for a reason and there is a reason why i am the way i am now for me the future is about trying to help as many people as possible that have got the same condition as me i would like to inspire try to help and reach out to them people that are scared to come forward and admit to the world you know the rear and they have got this [Music] illness you

Channel: Our Life

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Keywords: our life, documentary, world documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history

Id: ROPext-4ve8

Length: 44min 36sec (2676 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Sbeaudette]

Really sucks for her, but she sure isn't helping her situation by smoking though :-(

https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/31/health/smoking-aging-identical-twins/index.html