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

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Psychlone
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30 May 2005, 10:51 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... world.html

Quote:

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.

This is hard to believe, but I can't find anything that shows it to be fake. I just thought you all might be interested in this...

TB_Samurai
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30 May 2005, 11:36 pm

That's one of the oddest things I've ever heard. I guess it could be possible.

greenmonk
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31 May 2005, 12:04 am

Here is the original story:

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/health/4484968/detail.html

Watch the video and you'll see the actual news story. This is definitely not a hoax.

coffeenogrumpy
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31 May 2005, 12:48 am

absolutely amazing

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Tim_p
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31 May 2005, 12:56 am

How interesting, I have never heard of such a thing. I wonder what will happen to her as she further ages.

Jetson
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31 May 2005, 6:41 am

Psychlone wrote:

This is hard to believe, but I can't find anything that shows it to be fake.

It sounds like the exact opposite of Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (commonly known as "premature aging"), which affects 1 in 8 million people. HGPS is caused by a gene mutation. It sounds reasonable to expect another gene mutation could cause the opposite effect. I wonder if the girl's current growth-rate will translate into a significantly longer life span? I'm guessing at some point the exposure to environmental toxins will take a toll.

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magic
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31 May 2005, 8:55 am

I recall reading about this (or similar) condition in a medical encyclopedia when I was a kid. The article was accompanied by a picture of 3 brothers, all suffering from the condition. The oldest was 18 years old and looked like a 4-year-old. According to the article, kids' behavior matched their apparent age. Unfortunately, I read that encyclopedia more than 20 years ago, and I can't recall the name of the condition. This was an old encyclopedia (published in the 60s), so the name was probably changed since then anyway.

danlo
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31 May 2005, 9:08 am

Ah hmmm. very interesting. From a scientific POV, astounding. Secret of immortality within her genes, yes? Imagine if you could turn it on and off at will, via genetic manipulation. Reach 25, say, and turn off the gene. Will have to keep track of this story.

Therblig
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31 May 2005, 11:14 am

I had a friend in middle school whose older brother was 16, but he looked like he was two or three and his mental age was around one.

I never quite understood when my friend told me what he had. Honestly, I don't think she really knew either.

We went to different high schools and I have seen my friend or her brother since.

(I'm in high school now, so the brother is probably 18 currently).

coffeenogrumpy
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31 May 2005, 1:41 pm

i say.. i wonder if you can contact the old friend and direct them to this little girls family?

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MishLuvsHer2Boys
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31 May 2005, 4:04 pm

Yeah I saw the video and all, it's amazing... youth but at the price of loss of life. It's sad. Of course, it's easy to think it's hard to believe when she's so rare that she's the only case that is known in the world.

anbuend
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31 May 2005, 4:17 pm

I met someone once who looked and to an NT eye acted like she was 2, but she was actually about 12. However she understood a great deal more than she was given credit for understanding, she just showed her understanding differently.

I'm highly suspicious of "mental age", I believe in cognitive limitations but I do not believe in the construction of "mental age" in general (nor do many people I've met who've been labeled as having a "mental age" much lower than their chronological age, they had cognitive limitations but a different adult life experience than the young children they were described as).

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