The child in question had an inherited metabolic disorder that created a problem in breaking down long chain fatty molecules. The chains wound up too long and interfered with his myelin, the fatty coating on our nervous tissue.

Independently, his parents figured out that two different kinds of special oils, one of which had never been synthesized before, would prevent this damage, though unfortunately it cannot fix damage already inflicted.

To read more here is their website. They now help run The Myelin Project.

http://www.myelin.org/aboutoil.htm