“She just stopped growing”: Meet the 20-year-old woman trapped inside a toddler’s body (PHOTOS)

Brooke has remained physically and
cognitively similar to a toddler
No formal diagnosis for Brooke's condition
has ever been given, leading doctors to
term her condition Syndrome X
Doctors are sequencing her genome, in the
hope of finding answers from a possible
gene mutation that may have switched off
her ability to mature
Brooke Greenberg may look like an infant, but she
is actually 20 years old.
Despite her increasing age, Brooke has remained
physically and cognitively similar to a toddler,
with an estimated mental age of nine months to
one year.
Appearing on Katie with her parents and 17-year-
old sister, Brooke, who is from Maryland, is unable
to talk, still has her baby teeth and like any infant,
travels in a push chair – but doctors have never
been able to explain why.
20 years old: Despite her increasing age, Brooke
has remained physically and cognitively similar to
a toddler, with an estimated mental age of nine
months to one year
Her father, Howard Greenberg, explained: 'From
age one to four, Brooke changed. She got a little
bit bigger. But age four, four to five, she stopped.'
She has been examined by some of the most
prestigious medical institutions in the U.S.,
however no formal diagnosis for Brooke's
condition has been given, leading doctors to term
her condition Syndrome X.
Dr Eric Schadt, director of the Icahn Institute for
Genomics and Multiscale Biology at The Mount
Sinai Medical Center in New York, explained that
she 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.'

Brooke, who has stayed the same size for 15
years, requires 24-hour care from her parents.
She is fed through a tube inserted into her
stomach, because her oesophagus is so small that
swallowed food could back up into her lungs and
cause pneumonia.
Her mother, Melanie Greenberg, said: 'It's been 16
years of on the job training, giving her medicine,
knowing when she's sick, knowing the right
amount.'
Mr Greenberg added: 'The key with Brooke is we
don't know what tomorrow brings.'

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