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Brooke Greenberg is the size of an infant, with the mental capacity of a toddler.
She turned 16 in January.In her first six years, Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation. She survived surgery for seven perforated stomach ulcers. She suffered a brain seizure followed by what was diagnosed as a stroke that weeks later left no apparent damage.
At 4, she fell into a lethargy that caused her to sleep for 14 days. Then, doctors diagnosed a brain tumor, and the Greenbergs bought a casket for her.
"We were preparing for our child to die," Howard Greenberg said. "We were saying goodbye. And, then, we got a call that there was some change; that Brooke had opened her eyes and she was fine. There was no tumor. She overcomes every obstacle that is thrown her way." -
I read about her yesterday. 16 years old, and she's still just a toddler, physically and mentally. I'm not the religious sort, but she strikes me as a miracle.
"Never hold your farts in. They travel up your spine and into your brain, and that's where you get shitty ideas from." - Unknown -
Well, we don't know if she's really stopped aging or if she's simply stopped developing. It kind of sounds more like the latter, as the processes involved are probably not the same (there are several diseases where people age prematurely, and these are caused by a defect in cells' ability to repair their own DNA). Different parts of her are developing at different rates, so she is not physically a toddler, she just resembles one. As for her brain, it sounds like from a purely physical standpoint she'd have a hard time communicating if she learned or retained something anyhow, so I don't think one can say she truly has the brain of a toddler. To me, it sounds more like a rare variant on dwarfism.
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Yeah, that's a great point. It does sound like she has stopped developing, and this has little if anything to do with aging. My first guess would be that she has developed some sort of autoimmune condition that targets actively dividing cells. That might explain why she hasn't changed in size and how she has managed to trump brain cancer. If that's the case, it may not help us understand anything about aging but it would be a hell of a boon to cancer research. No matter what I think there's a lot of knowledge to be gained from this poor girl. My heart goes out to her family, though - it must be a constant challenge.
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- Bill June 2009
- Mike Brady June 2009
- Tindomiel June 2009