 Merricks condition was undiagnosed at the time of his death. Later  studies of his skeleton and the casts made of his body led  researchers to suggest he suffered from neurofibromatosis (NF), a  genetic condition that 1 in 4,000 persons suffer from. The NF  Foundation used the movie as a fund raising tool and credited it  with making the disease more widely known. Later examination,  including CT scans of the skeleton, lead researchers to believe he  suffered from proteus syndrome, a much rarer condition than NF. In  2003, researchers using surviving DNA samples from Merrick were able  to determine that he definitely suffered from proteus syndrome, and  probably suffered from NF as well, hence his unique condition.