SINGAPORE – Of all the rare medical conditions Straits Times health correspondent Judith Tan has written about, the report that sticks in her memory is about a woman with an illness that makes her turn into stone.

The newsroom veteran, who has been a journalist for 36 years, unearthed the case of undergraduate Raphaella Gautama for the broadsheet’s Medical Mysteries series, which began in April 2024.

Ms Gautama, who was 20 at the time the report was published on Feb 9, 2025, suffers from

a condition that is slowly “turning her into stone”

Ms Gautama’s condition – fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva – affects about one in a million people worldwide, and the median life expectancy is 56 years.

Ms Tan, 61, said: “Doctors Ms Gautama consulted did not know what it was or how to diagnose it, and she was in limbo for two years as they tried to find out.

“Despite her condition, she was determined not to let her condition define her.”

On Nov 5, the

Medical Mysteries series