Brooke Greenberg: The Girl Who Does Not Age

Take a good look at the little girl sucking her finger in this picture. How old would you say this girl was. In toddlerhood, right?



Wrong. This photo was taken on her 12th birthday. That's right folks, this little finger sucking medical mystery is not at all a toddler in the conventional sense.
Her name is Brooke Greenberg, and she was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 8th, 1993. So yep, she turned 16 this year.
The other people in the photo are left to right sisters Caitlin, Emily, mother Melanie and sister Carly.
Caitlin is 19 these days, Emily 22, and Carly 13.

At age 16, wee Brooke is 2-and-a-half feet tall and weighs only 16 pounds. She doesn't speak, and her brain is that of an infant of around 6 months to a year in age. She is however very aware of herself and her surroundings, and has managed to develop a means of getting about the house, as the following video clip from 2005 shows.



As you can see, Brooke has not had an easy time of it. In her In her first six years Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation.
She has 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 age 4 or 5 (some of my reference sources say 4 and some say 5, so I'm not 100% certain what age), she developed a mass in her brain and fell into a coma that caused her to sleep for 14 days. This was diagnosed by doctors as being caused by a brain tumor and the Greenbergs prepared for her death, but then she stunned the family by waking up, having suffered no ill effects and with the tumor having completely disappeared.
That's some pretty hefty resilience huh?
But in spite of this, because of her medically fragile nature the state of Maryland has provided two nurses to take care of Brooke 16 hours a day. It takes her many hours to eat each day, by means of a feeding tube inserted in her stomach.


So why is she like this? Well, nobody really knows for sure, but doctors believe she has developed a mutation of the gene that controls aging and development. Brooke’s aging and development genes have in effect been "turned off". Greenberg's doctors have termed her condition Syndrome X, which is a name that along with sounding suitably "mad sciencey" is very reminiscent of the chemical that made the Powerpuff Girls so uhh.. "powerpuffy". She's the only person in the world who has this condition. Her bones are that of a 10-year-old, her teeth are 6-years-old, her brain stopped developing at a very young age, and the only things that have continued to grow on her from age 4 onwards are her hair and nails.
This however, does not account for her seemingly superhuman ability to combat the various medical emergencies that have in the past threatened to snuff her truly unique little self out.

She's some kind of.. super psuedobaby O_O



And she may just outlive us all. Mwooohahahahaaa!!
Okay, so technically the title of this post is in fact a bit of a misnomer. But "The girl who stopped physically developing at age 4 and looks and acts a few years younger" is a pretty fucking cumbersome title*.
I for one am pleased that Brooke is in spite of all this lucky enough to have such a loving family that obviously cares very much for her, and a safe home environment where she can be herself without any outside hassles.

Because my word, 16 years worth of nappy rash and changing diapers must surely be a bit of a trial.

♌♍ Chloé

*(Other rejected titles include Brooke Greenberg: Child Trapped In Time, You Can Stick Peter Pan Up Your Ass: Its Brooke Greenberg! and Brooke Greenberg: The Überbaby.)