12-Year-Old Maryland Girl Has Not Aged In Years

The Pittsburgh Channel ^ | 5/13/05

[LibWhacker]

BALTIMORE -- Imagine being frozen in time as a baby forever. It sounds impossible, but it describes Brooke Greenberg.

The Baltimore-area girl may look like a baby, but she's nearly a teenager. In most respects, Brooke looks and acts like your average 6-month-old baby -- she weighs 13 pounds and she is 27 inches long.

Brooke Greenberg, 12, weighs 13 pounds and is 27 inches long.

But Brooke is actually 12 years old, reported WBAL-TV in Baltimore.

Brooke doesn't age. Her syndrome remains undiagnosed and unnamed, and as far as doctors can tell, she is the only one in the world who has it.

Dr. Laurence Pakula has been Brooke's pediatrician since she was born.

"In height, weight, she's 6 to 12 months," Pakula said. "If you ask any physician who knows nothing about her, the response is that she is maybe a handicapped 2-year-old."

Her body may not be aging, but Brooke's health is deteriorating. She is fed through a tube, and she's had strokes, seizures, ulcers, severe respiratory problems and a tumor the size of a lemon.

The four times Brooke has come dangerously close to death, she bounced back and no one knows why.

Pakula points out that the girl has a strong sense of self and of sibling rivalry. Brooke has no language skills, but she does have enough motor skills to pull herself up in her crib or scoot across the kitchen floor.

Pakula said Brooke has thrived because of the support of her parents and three sisters.

"When one sees how much she has accomplished, it's a wonderful reminder that even for someone who's limited, it's a wonderful world out there," Pakula said.

As genetic research expands, scientists might be able to learn the secrets of this little girl. But until then, it is Brooke who is doing the teaching.

[penowa]

When I was in my late teens long ago, my mother was dying of breast cancer in her early '40's. When the MD's from my hometown told her that she had less than 6 mos. to live (this was in the days before chemo,) she decided to have experimental surgery at Cleveland Clinic. They destroyed her pituitary gland and sent her home (to die.) They sent with her enough medication to cover a tray like you deliver someone a meal on and she was to consume at least one and sometimes 3 or more of each medication per day. All of it was to make various and assorted glands work that the pituitary controls. She died within 6 wks. of coming home, but I watched her turn into the girl she had been at 16 or 17 (about my age.) It absolutely blew my poor father's mind as he was 20 yrs. her senior to start with. Very strange little gland.

[paltz]

Her body may not be aging, but Brooke's health is deteriorating. She is fed through a tube, and she's had strokes, seizures, ulcers, severe respiratory problems and a tumor the size of a lemon.

Hide this kid from the courts!

[shellshocked]

Sad story. I don't want to turn her into a lab rat, but maybe they can use her problem to find the trigger for aging and help prevent other diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I thought this had been seen before. I could swear I remember the story of a guy who was in his late 20's or early 30's who looked 10 or so. They interviewed him and he spoke about how difficult it was to get served in bars. I think he's an actor from NYC?

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

I often assume medical science knows almost everything these days and that if something can't be cured, it most certainly can at least be identified.

I was actively having a heart attack in my doctor's office 18 months ago. He gave me an EKG, a prescription for heart burn meds and sent me home.

[Alouette]

I'd like to have been frozen in time at age 29.

[Alouette]

I could swear I remember the story of a guy who was in his late 20's or early 30's who looked 10 or so. They interviewed him and he spoke about how difficult it was to get served in bars. I think he's an actor from NYC?

I also remember reading about this man. Apparently he had a good career going playing "children's roles" in theater, movies and TV, and refused medical technology that could have prolonged his life, but ended his acting career.

[Saundra Duffy]

Stay away from George Felos and Judge Greer, little doll.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

That sounds like him. You'd think the root of the ailment would be the same, sort of like osteogenesis imperfecta (glass bone disease).

[sammycook]

They were two completely different things that were going on there. Donald was in a semi-lucid state and would talk every once in a while. Terri was in a constant vegetative state where portion of her brain was replaced with spinal fluid. Not much recovery going on there.

This little girl is also not in a constant vegetative state. She has a chance. Please give the Terri issue a rest.

I think that what happened with Terri was a big travesty, but mostly because the media took too much of an interest in it. This was a private family issue that should never have been brought out into the public.

(Also, remember if you are on the same side of an argument as Jesse Jackson, you might want to rethink your position /sarc)

[raccoonradio]

The actor is Mario Bosco:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0097839/

There was an article about him online from ABC News but I think it expired. However I found it via Wayback Machine/archive.org:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020220233307/http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/chat_mariobosco.html

[penowa]

Sorry, I will attempt to NEVER mention Terri on any thread again. How's that? When someone says she died in 1991, I feel entitled to respond to their ignorance. Perhaps you should do some additional reading about Mr. Herbert before showing yours. Once he went to a nursing home (about 2 1/2 yrs. after his accident) his doctors considered him "near" PVS. He was not semi-lucid except for the brief time after he awakened from the coma and according to what I have read, that is when ALL the photos we've seen were taken. He was transferred to the nursing home because his condition continued downhill until his present MD, Ahmed, thought he was PVS, "near" PVS, close to PVS, etc. because he sat and drooled all day in front of a TV he could not see and responded to nothing. In addition, I did NOT say "this little girl is also not in a constant vegetative state;" you did. I did not say ANYTHING at all about the little girl. I replied to someone else who never mentioned the little girl.

Thank you for your meaningless remarks and I will certainly endeavor to follow all the new rules that you are making for posters on FR. Now that you make the rules for posting here, perhaps you would care to post them somewhere so we can all be certain to follow them.

[G Larry]

>...if you are on the same side of an argument as Jesse Jackson...<

Jesse ONLY appears for the publicity.
It has NOTHING to do with principle.
If he DID care about Terri, he would have shown up much earlier.

[sammycook]

"He has had several infrequent moments of lucidity, which has given us much hope for further recovery," Linda Herbert said at a news conference at Erie County Medical Center.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/firefighter_recovery

---

OK, I admit that the information that I had on Mr. Herbert was a little off, I thought that his semi-lucidity that was mentioned in the story was before (and still think that I saw somewhere that it was) his recovery. Still, his condition was different than Terri's as his cerebral cortex had not been replaced by spinal fluid.

The posting about the little girl was not meant to be to you personally, but to all those who have posted about the little girl and anyones wishes to do her any harm. Bad posting etiquette.

[penowa]

"...to all those who have posted about the little girl and anyones wishes to do her any harm."

I must have missed all the posters (including me?) who wish to harm the child. What are you talking about?

[uglybiker]

And don't let the Hollywood elite know either. They will want to dissect her to figure out why she doesn't age...and how they can do the same.

They have no further to look than Dick Clark.

[Ditter]

I can't see your picture and it has been removed from the website. Does she look like a normal baby?

[LibWhacker]

Yes, I thought so, although you could tell something was wrong. Her eyes are crossed, for instance. However, I'm not very good at guesstimating children's ages . . . Just going by the picture I would've guessed her age at 4 or 5 years.

[Ditter]

Have you ever seen one of those children who aged very rapidly? Progeria, I think? I saw one in an elevator once, I could not control my shocked stare. This disease sounds like the opposite of that one. Poor kids.

[Hildy]

Is there any story you guys won't bring back to Terri Schiavo, any whatsoever?