Lehigh County’s ‘little sheriff’ dies after battle with terminal brain disease

Janelle Livingston remembers the day in early 2016 when a doctor said her then-8-year-old son, Kaleb Holder, would lose his ability to see, walk and talk, all within a year.

“I thought the doctor was crazy,” Livingston said. “I was looking at my son, running and playing like any normal child, and couldn’t imagine what the doctor was telling me was true."

Kaleb was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy ― a rare genetic disease that destroys myelin, the protective sheath surrounding the neurons in his brain and spinal cord.

By December 2016, the doctor’s prediction had turned out to be correct.