12 Year Old Girl Who Stopped Growing When She Was A Toddler.

Brooke Greenberg is 12 years old as of mid-2005, so she should be almost a teenager by now. But she has remained a baby.

Some 27 inches tall and 13 pounds, she seems to be a six-month-old infant in height and weight according to many who see her. The photos released to the media have her looking like a child of perhaps one to one-and-a-half years.

A native of Reisterstown, Maryland, not far from Baltimore, she resides with her parents and three sisters. Her father, Howard Greenberg, says she has been the way she is for a dozen years. The family has continued baby care and sends her to a school for handicapped children.

Her condition is a puzzle to modern medical science. There is no diagnosis for her syndrome, nor any name for her condition. Dr. Laurence Pakula has been monitoring her since birth. He comments that any physician who knew nothing about her case would think that she was perhaps a two-year-old with a handicap.

Brooke's health has been a problem, though. Before she was five, she suffered ulcers, breathing problems, strokes and other afflictions. Yet she always rallied. Except for her need for a feeding tube, her health has been stable for many years.

Prior to her birth, her spasmodic development baffled doctors. During her first year of life, a growth hormone was tried on her — but discontinued.

She possesses a sense of self, so has felt sibling rivalry. She cannot speak, but can scoot across floors and even smile at those she knows. It is not yet understood what else can happen. There is neither any expectation of further development on her part nor any estimate of how long she will live.

She also began developing serious medical conditions. During the first few years of her life, she was able to eat. She later developed stomach problems and had to be fed through a feeding pump. She also had respiratory problems, was frequently hospitalized, and even suffered a stroke.

Today, Brooke remains exactly the same size, despite the fact that she’s now 12 ½ years old. Her health remains precarious. She spent much of this past winter sick with respiratory problems and recently was hospitalized. The Greenbergs now have a nurse help them care for Brooke.

Her story may have only been intended for local coverage on WBAL-TV 11 in the Baltimore area during early June, but got released to a larger audience. According to some internet speculation, this may have been counter to an agreement with the Greenbergs regarding the use of pictures and videos.

Sources:

MSNBC News, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7839942/, version as of 6/16/05

News.telegraph (Sunday Telegraph), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/, 5/22/05

A Welsh View: Brooke Greenberg Update 2, http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2005/05/brooke_greenber_1.html

Strangemag.Com

WBAL-TV