U.S. Teen With Aging Disorder Dies at 13

Seth Cook, a Seattle-area boy born with the rare genetic disease progeria that causes accelerated aging has died of a heart attack at the age of 13.

Cook would have turned 14 next month and stood just 3-feet tall, yet was a star in his hometown of Darrington, northwest of Seattle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday.

The boy remained active until recently, when his health took a bad turn followed by the heart attack, his mother said.

His health prevented him from traveling to Florida this week for the Sunshine Foundation’s annual reunion of children with progeria but the group’s founder and president, Bill Sample, telephoned him Sunday to fill him in and make him feel included, his mother told the Post-Intelligencer.

Fewer than 100 children worldwide are thought to have the disease. Cook’s health was too compromised this year to try a new drug designed to slow the advanced aging effects of the disease, the report said.