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Josiah Viera dies at 14 after lifelong battle with rare disease

Josiah Viera, the subject of an E:60 feature, passed away on Monday morning. He was 14 years old.

Born May 25, 2004, Viera weighed 5.5 pounds at birth and gained just two more pounds over the next six months. On his first birthday, doctors diagnosed Viera with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria, a fatal genetic condition characterized by accelerated aging in children. The chance of being born with progeria is about 1 in 4 million, making it among the rarest diseases in the world.

Viera's life expectancy was projected to be between 8 and 13 years.

His disease could not curtail his love of baseball.