(The dermatologist) admitted he did not know what made the fibers, but was not willing to help me find out,” Leitao said. “His final diagnosis was eczema. He gave my son topical eczema medication, which did not help.”

As she left his office, she saw the doctor going out to lunch with his wife and 4-year-old son.

“Not a care in the world,” she said. “What is wrong with these guys? No innate scientific curiosity or human empathy?

“I realized I was on my own.”

Leitao said the dermatologist was initially fascinated by the blue fibers sprouting from her son’s skin lesions.

“The doctor looked at everything I showed him,” she said. “He examined Drew’s skin lesions using the handheld microscope I brought. He was so amazed at the blue fibers coming straight out of a skin lesions that he called his physician’s assistant over to look at them.”

She showed the doctor how the fibers glowed under an ultraviolet light.

“(The dermatologist) admitted he did not know what made the fibers, but was not willing to help me find out,” Leitao said. “His final diagnosis was eczema. He gave my son topical eczema medication, which did not help.”

“Once I started taking these patients seriously, I saw the variety and number of unusual and unexpected skin occupants was real, they were unequivocally there,” Harvey said. “I still don’t know what some of these things are, but my theory is that the symptoms are a phenomenon of a much larger process that has rendered their skin immunity ineffective.”