The girl who wouldn’t grow
Because no doctor has ever been able to provide a formal diagnosis for Brooke’s condition, her condition has been labeled “Syndrome X.” Weighing just 16 (7 kilograms), she is estimated to have the mental capacity of a toddler.
Brooke has “no apparent abnormalities in her endocrine system, no gross chromosomal abnormalities, or any of the other disruptions known to occur in humans that can cause developmental issues,” said Dr. Eric Schadt, director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, reports the Daily Mail.
Her Baltimore-area family treats Brooke like any other child, insisting she does not need to be cured: “If somebody knocked on the door right now and said, ‘It’s a guaranteed pill. Give this to Brooke and she’ll be fixed,’ well, first I would say to him, ‘She’s not broken,’” her father Howard told Katie Couric on her daily live talk show.
Blowback
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Well, I’d love my kid regardless, but I’d take the pill, too.
Bob's Kid on January 14, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Me too. Being 5 years old mentally and physically for life is no blessing.
HotAirian on January 14, 2013 at 4:46 PM
Agree
GWB on January 14, 2013 at 4:46 PM
I agree, but I bet you anything there are people out there who would love a infant or toddler only child. Scary thought.
BigGator5 on January 14, 2013 at 4:55 PM
Not judging this guy at all because no pill exists and you’ve got to cope however you can and claiming that nothing’s wrong seems to be his way of doing so. However it would be cruel to deprive her of the opportunity to have the same failures and successes as the rest of us. She’ll never get dumped by a boy, but she’ll never fall in love. She’ll never want to smash her head against a wall after rocking a crying baby all night long, but she’ll never get to hold her own daughter.
Dead Hand Control on January 14, 2013 at 5:11 PM
Peter Pan Syndrome, for real!
ExpressoBold on January 14, 2013 at 5:29 PM
If she does not physically age then she is immortal. She can’t die from aging and that IMO should be study. Of course with the parent permission and not harm in the process of preserving/studying her genetic makeup.
jdun on January 14, 2013 at 5:46 PM
Her parents do love her. There is no pill!
Kensington on January 14, 2013 at 6:01 PM
That’s exactly what my scientific mind is wondering. Will she age at all?
Bob's Kid on January 14, 2013 at 6:10 PM