Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva or "Stone Man Syndrome" is a debilitating disease that causes sufferers to appear to slowly turn to stone. This disease is extremely rare, which is lucky as it causes any damaged soft tissue in the body to regrow as bone. The end result is the total ossification of the muscles, tendons and ligaments, rendering movement difficult or completely impossible. Everybody has experienced ossification at some point in their lives. When babies are in the womb, their soft, cartilage like skeletons need to become hard and robust ready fro the outside world. However, for those who are born with Stone Man Syndrome, the gene that controls the ossification never switches off, meaning that the process continues for the rest of their lives. To make matters worse, any surgery to remove the extra bone will result in an explosion of growth, simple serving to make the symptoms even worse.
