BOSTON -- A troubling medical puzzle in South Boston has finally been pieced together. A relatively small community has an alarming number of cases of a debilitating disease.

Southie is a community of 30,000. Ordinarily, you'd see one maybe at most eight cases of a rare, life-threatening disease. But health officials have now confirmed 21 current and prior cases and they think they know why.

Twelve years ago, Liz Lombard prodded the state to study what was happening to her and some of her neighbors.

"I have always wondered why because I have been told all along that it's a rare disorder," Lombard said.

Lombard is being disfigured by a painful, life-threatening disease. Scleroderma causes the body's immune system to attack the skin and organs.

"I produce an abundance of collagen and it produces scar tissue in the face and my hands," she said.

A six-year study confirms what Lombard first suspected.

"The one thing we can say with great surety is that the numbers of people with scleroderma in this community are definitely high," said Suzanne Condon, of the department of public health.

The study found a link to family medical history, and what makes Southie so unique also makes it the epicenter of a rare cluster.

The study also found no higher risk from environmental exposure to the power plant, Logan International Airport or swimming in polluted Boston Harbor.

They are answers Lombard has been seeking even as she watched her own body deteriorate.

"I am here, and it's a blessing, and I am very grateful because some of the people who had this from my neighborhood aren't here," she said.