A 12 year old girl who does not age.

[maximus]

Again, I have no link but I have a video. Video of Brooke

Brooke looks like any other baby girl. But in fact, she's 12 years old

By Charles Laurence in New York
(Filed: 22/05/2005)

Brooke Greenberg has celebrated 12 birthdays according to the calendar and her family photo albums. In terms of growing up, however, she has yet to reach her first.

To the mystification of the medical world, Brooke is frozen in time, a real-life, female Peter Pan. She weighs 13lb and measures 27 inches, and looks and acts as if she were a six-month-old baby, not a girl about to become a teenager.

Brooke lives with her parents Howard and Melanie Greenberg and her three sisters in Reisterstown, a Baltimore suburb, and doctors credit her survival to their love and support.

"She hasn't changed in 12 years," Mr Greenberg, 48, told The Sunday Telegraph. He does not see his beloved daughter as an object of pity. "Why is it sad?" he asks. "We love her the way she is."

For 12 years the family has changed her nappies, rocked her to sleep and taken turns to give her cuddles. On school days, she is carried gently into a yellow bus and taken to a special school for handicapped children. Her condition has no name and doctors are unaware of any other child in her situation.

Brooke has learned to pull herself up in her cot, crawl across the floor and scoot along in a specially adapted baby-walker. She smiles at people she recognises, but has never been able to say a single word. She does finger paintings when presented with a pot of paint and sheet of paper.

She recognises her family, and giggles when tickled. She has no language skills but has a "sense of self" in that she suffers from healthy sibling rivalry. When her younger sister Carly, now nine, was born, Brooke would cry with jealousy until Mrs Greenberg, 44, picked her up along with the new baby.

That, however, is about as far as she has developed. She simply does not age. "There is no diagnosis. We don't know what is going on," said the family's doctor, Lawrence Pakula, "There is no one else like her in the world."

He describes her as being the equivalent of between six months to 12 months old in terms of height and weight, and says that most doctors who see her compare her to "maybe a handicapped two-year-old".

Brooke was born after a 36-week pregnancy on January 8 1993 in the Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, weighing 4lb 1oz. As an unborn baby, her spasmodic development puzzled doctors. In her first year, she was treated with human growth hormone, but it had no effect.

Until she was five, she suffered a succession of life-threatening health problems, including strokes, seizures, ulcers and breathing difficulties - almost as if she was growing old despite not growing up. Four times, it seemed that she might die. At one point she was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of a lemon, but it shrank away of its own accord, and Brooke simply woke up.

Brooke now has to be fed through a tube, but her health seems to have stabilised. There is no expectation that she will develop, but, equally, no one can predict how long she can survive.

"People wonder how we have managed to look after her because she has been a baby for such a long time," Mrs Greenberg said. "We just keep going because she is our daughter."

[LoneStarGirl]

Wow, that is freaking unbelievable. The parents say the child will outlive them both but I don't see how. At least they get to save money on clothes...

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I call bullshit.

I second the motion.

[Franklinnoble]

I call bullshit.

[Joe]

is this from The Onion?

[ThunderingHERD]

Call me when she's legal.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Call me when she's legal.

Just don't mistake her for your member.

[Young Drachma]

I think it's absolutely crazy that NO ONE has any clue what this is about. I mean, Johns Hopkins is in that state? None of those 'experts' know anything? Maybe her parents don't want to dole out the cash? So they put her on TV, hoping that someone will notice?

That's crazy.

[DaddyTorgo]

saw something in the paper the other day about the same thing with a baby gorilla here in boston. or at least a similar thing. weird...very weird.

[JeeberD]

Syndrome Remains Undiagnosed

http://www.local6.com/health/4485525/detail.html





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.

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.

[ThunderingHERD]

The actual condition doesn't shock me so much as the fact that she's been able to survive with it for 12 years. It's probably not as uncommon as you would gather from the articles, it's just that usually they die much sooner.

[Sharpieman]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Call me when she's legal.

Wow, thats so beyond wrong lol

[BigJohn&TheLions]

I thought bullshit too, but I guess it is for real. Considering that my daughter is about a month older than her I just thank God that she was born fine and healthy.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Call me when she's legal.

In 6 years we're going to see.. "I'd hit it" posts?

daaaaaaamn..

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Wow.

[Desnudo]

Really what I'd like to see is a 21 year old girl that does not age.

[QuikSand]

Curious story...but in the internet age, is there really meaningful news out there that exists only on somebody's "Local6.com" web site? The first post in this thread -- that had to come from SOMEWHERE, right? But no internet link? Why no link?

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Really what I'd like to see is a 21 year old girl that does not age.

Why so far from their prime?

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by DeToxRoxDVHStyle

Why so far from their prime?

He can legally get her drunk at that age. For some of us, that's the only way to score with a hot chick.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

He can legally get her drunk at that age. For some of us, that's the only way to score with a hot chick.

True. Having just 19 not too long ago, I relish the fleeting days of the 17 year old girl.

[jamesUMD]

I live in Owings Mills which is connected to Reisterstown. I hadn't heard the story but those are the local newcasters. Kind of spooky to me.

[Antmeister]

Interesting story maximus. I just wish there were other stations reporting it so that I wouldn't feel as if I am fooled into believing this. But it is amazing regardless.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Curious story...but in the internet age, is there really meaningful news out there that exists only on somebody's "Local6.com" web site? The first post in this thread -- that had to come from SOMEWHERE, right? But no internet link? Why no link?

This appears to be the link of the original story...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...2/ixworld.html

[judicial clerk]

I still don't quite believe it. I would like some kind of verification, or maybe one of our resident doctors can verify this, if not cure the girl's condition.

[henry296]

Actually I think this might be the original link:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7839942/

The news reporter in the story is an actual reported for the Baltimore NBC affilate.

All other google searches seem to reference this story. Snopes has neither confirmed or denied it.

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

I still don't quite believe it. I would like some kind of verification, or maybe one of our resident doctors can verify this, if not cure the girl's condition.

I'm not an MD (rather a PhD), but my best guess is that this disorder is not being characterized properly by the media. Specifically, I believe they've confused the concepts of "aging" and "development," which I suppose is easy to do given that they co-occur in nearly everyone. However, I sincerely doubt that Brooke is not aging in the biological sense (i.e., cellular division, metabolic cellular wear-and-tear, etc.). I rather suspect that she's simply not developing normally. Her bizarre and (thankfully) rare birth defect has stopped her growth, and the fact that she doesn't appear to be "aging" is because she isn't growing and still has the skin of a young kid, a 12 year-old. I suspect that if she lives to her 30s or 40s she'll start to show aging-related wrinkles.

Thus, I don't think she's "frozen in time" like the newscasters described. Notice that her pediatrician never mentioned that she's "not aging," he just described her as a mystery. The statement that she isn't aging is made by the reporter, and is largely riffing on a statement the father made about Brooke being "like the fountain of youth."

Sad case, regardless.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

I still don't quite believe it. I would like some kind of verification, or maybe one of our resident doctors can verify this, if not cure the girl's condition.

I've seen Child Disintegrative Disorder cases in which a child regresses and fails to develop normal developmental milestones, normal stature, usually has seizures, and other medical complications. This sounds VERY similar to that. I've seen 10 year olds that look like 2 year olds. I don't see this as being that mystifying or that completely unusual. The surprising part is that she has lived this long.

Edit: To clarify, it is rare. However, since my research specializes in Pervasive Developmental Disorders, that is why it is not particularly unusual.

Irregardless, it is very sad.

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola -

The other really odd part is that this hasn't been correctly diagnosed. The severe cases of failure to thrive and develop usually result from severe disturbances in the hypothalmic-pituitary axis. I can't believe that her MRI and other laboratory tests would be completely normal.