Brooke Greenberg, who baffled scientists because she never aged, has died at the age of 20, never having developed beyond the physical size of an infant or the mental capacity of a 2-year-old。

永遠不會長大的布魯克·格林伯格讓科學家們迷惑不已，她在上周離世，現(xiàn)年20歲的她一直保持著嬰兒的身形，智力發(fā)育一直保持在2歲兒童的水平。

The daughter of Howard and Melanie Greenberg from Reisterstown, Brooke is one of about a dozen children in the world who have what some call syndrome X -- a kind of Benjamin Button disorder that prevents them from aging。

布魯克·格林伯格來自雷斯特斯敦的霍華德·格林伯格和梅勒尼·格林伯格的女兒。她是世界上十來個患有所謂“X綜合征”的兒童之一，這是一種與本杰明·巴頓類似的病癥，會讓兒童無法長大。

Her funeral was Sunday at a synagogue outside Baltimore, family friends confirmed。

據(jù)這家人的親友稱，她的家人已經(jīng)在周日于巴爾的摩的猶太會堂為她舉行葬禮。

Brooke has been pushed around in a stroller all her life. In 2009, when her family was interviewed on ABC， Brook weighed 16 pounds and was 30 inches tall. She didn't speak, but she laughed when she was happy, and clearly recognized her three sisters: Emily, now 26; Caitlin, now 23; and Carly, now 17.

布魯克生前一直都是躺在嬰兒車里，被大人們推來推去。在2009年接受ABC之聲采訪的時候，布魯克的體重為16磅(約7.26公斤)，身高30英寸(76.2 厘米)。她不會說話，但是開心的時候會笑，而且顯然認識她的三個姐妹：現(xiàn)年26歲的艾米麗、現(xiàn)年23歲的凱特琳和現(xiàn)年17歲的卡莉。

But only her hair and fingernails grew。

但是只有她的頭發(fā)和指甲殼會長長。

In her first six years, Brooke went through a series of medical emergencies from which she recovered, often without explanation. She survived surgery for seven perforated stomach ulcers. She had a brain seizure followed by what was diagnosed as a stroke that, weeks later, had left no apparent damage。

在出生后的最初6年里，布魯克經(jīng)歷了一系列的緊急醫(yī)療事故，每次都會奇跡般的康復，無法解釋原因。她接收了7次胃潰瘍穿孔手術，她曾被診斷為突發(fā)中風，接著又突發(fā)大腦癲癇，數(shù)周后奇跡般康復，未留下明顯的腦損傷。

Richard F. Walker, a retired medical researcher from the University of Florida Medical School who now does his research at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, has followed Brooke's case since she was about 2 years old, comparing her genetic code with that of other children with the same condition. Their bodies do not develop as a coordinated unit, but as independent parts that are out of sync, according to Walker. No known genetic syndromes or chromosomal abnormalities can explain why。

已從佛羅里達大學醫(yī)學院退休，現(xiàn)于圣彼得堡全科兒童醫(yī)院從事研究的理查德·沃克從布魯克2歲左右就開始追蹤她的案例。他將布魯克的基因序列與其他相同病例的兒童相互比對。沃克說，這些兒童的身體無法作為一個統(tǒng)一整體發(fā)展，而是作為各個獨立的部分發(fā)展自身，相互并不協(xié)調。沒有任何遺傳綜合癥或染色體異常可以解釋這種情況。

Brooke still had baby teeth at age 16, and her bone age was estimated to be more like 10.

布魯克在16歲的時候還沒脫掉乳牙。她的骨齡約莫僅有10歲左右。

Walker also studies Gabby Williams, an 8-year-old from Billings, who weighs only 11 pounds and a 29-year-old Florida man who has the body of a 10-year-old. Like Brooke, they never seem to age。

沃克同時正在研究的病例還有來自比林斯的8歲男孩，蓋比·威廉——他的體重僅有11磅重(約5公斤)，以及來自佛羅里達的一個29歲的男子，他們都和布魯克一樣，從未長大。

Not only do the people he's studying have a growth rate of one-fifth the speed of others, but they live with a variety of other medical problems, including deafness, the inability to walk, eat or even speak。

沃克研究的這些病例的生長率只有常人的1/5, 而且他們還有許多其他的醫(yī)療問題，例如失聰、無法行走、無法進食或無法說話等等。