A 5-year-old boy from Colorado died during a family trip to Oregon. Doctors say a rare disease attacked his blood vessels. It shut down his body in just five days.

Justin Vu was healthy and full of energy before the trip. His parents, Terese Peden and Viet Vu, took him to see Cannon Beach and the Oregon Zoo. Then Justin got sick, and he never got better.

The case has drawn attention because Justin's illness is so rare. Doctors say only about 500 cases like his have shown up around the world since the 1960s. His parents now want other families and doctors to learn about it. They hope no other child has to die the same way.

Justin's stomach started to hurt on the night of July 3. He threw up all night. The next morning, his parents rushed him to the emergency room. Doctors first thought he had appendicitis or a bad infection. Those are common problems, and at first, nothing about Justin's case looked unusual.

By July 5, just two days after he first felt sick, Justin got much worse, fast. His body could no longer fight on its own. Doctors put him on life support. They told his parents he had a 50-50 chance to live. In less than a week, Justin had gone from playing at the beach to fighting for his life. He was now in a hospital bed.

A doctor at Randall Children's Hospital had an idea. She thought Justin might have Clarkson's disease. Doctors also call it systemic capillary leak syndrome. It is a sickness that makes fluid and protein leak out of blood vessels. The fluid goes into the body's tissue instead of staying in the blood. This makes blood pressure crash. It causes bad swelling. It can shut down organs.

Justin's medical team made one last try to save him. It did not work. Justin died with his family and hospital staff by his side.

Clarkson's disease is so rare that most doctors never see a single case in their whole career. It strikes fast and is hard to catch in time. Few doctors know the warning signs. Sick patients can lose hours or days before anyone finds the right diagnosis. That is what happened to Justin. His illness looked like appendicitis or a common infection at first. It took a sharp-eyed doctor at a children's hospital to think of something far more rare.

Doctors who study Clarkson's disease still do not fully know what causes it. They do know it can hit a person who was healthy just hours earlier. That is part of what makes it so scary for families. It is also why emergency rooms find it so hard to catch in time.

Rare disease cases like this matter to families everywhere, including here in South Texas. Parents often trust that a stomach bug is just a stomach bug. Justin's story is a reminder that sudden, severe symptoms in a child can turn deadly fast. It also shows that pushing doctors for answers can save a life.

Justin's parents are speaking publicly about his death. They want more doctors to know about Clarkson's disease so they can catch it sooner in other patients. They have also started a GoFundMe page. The money will help pay hospital bills and funeral costs. Some of it will also go toward research into Clarkson's disease.

There is no word yet on how much money the family has raised. There is also no word on whether hospitals are changing how they screen for the disease. The family's push for awareness is just beginning.

Justin's parents say they are telling his story so doctors act faster next time. They hope emergency rooms will keep Clarkson's disease in mind when a patient crashes without a clear reason. For now, Justin Vu is remembered as a happy, energetic 5-year-old boy. His life ended far too soon, on a family trip meant to make memories.