Brooke Greenberg, 12, weighs 13 pounds and is 27 inches long. Posted on 05/13/2005 10:41:01 AM PDT by 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.
I doubt it. It's more likely that her 'grow up' mechanism failed, but that the normal cellular disruptions that are associated with the ravages of time will continue apace.
Wow, almost the opposite of that aging syndrome - where children AGE very, very fast and die at about that time from it.
Sad to say that some would want to starve/thirst her to death....maybe even some here at FR. And then you got the ones that worry about what this is costing....shameful. Anyway, prayers for that little girl and her family. May God give them strength.
But who would want to live forever, continually having seizures, strokes and tumors? Not me.
I hate when I repeat what someone already said!
And this does sound like the opposite of progeria. I have never forgotten that 20 year old woman who looked 80. I believe she set the survival record.
That poor kid. And how devastating this must have been for her parents, not least because (unlike progeria, or Downs , or autism, etc) there would be no resources-no support groups-no answers for them. :-(
It's amazing what types of diseases and syndromes there are out there. Not long ago there was a show on about kids that age too fast - they are 7 & 8 years old but look 90 and they usually die by the time they are 13.
Methinks that perhaps this beautiful, remarkable child may hold the secret of perpetual youth in her genetic code. Just a private thought. Perhaps medical scientists ought to be asking more profound questions here.
Yeah, I had to double-check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st. God bless her.
Nonsense...
I for one am 'deeply saddened' that every thread about anything medical is now a Terri thread by proxy.
Congeria?
She's just a little doll, so pretty.
BUMP!
So she doesn't have a 12 year old mind?
25? na, the brain isn't fully developed at 25, Maybe at around 45 when a little more wisdom is gained and that socialist Marxism phaze passes.
>>I guess there is always a lot to learn.<<
That's the understatement of the year. And don't dare say it on a Crevo thread! 8^>
Please don't bring up the crevo/evo threads! I still have a headache from yesterday's posts!
Agreed.
Someone had to say it, thank you.
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