Duly noted: Girl who doesn’t age wins suit against Johns Hopkins 

Posted: 8:02 pm Mon, February 15, 2010
By Daily Record Staff

A Reisterstown teenager internationally known for never having aged past infancy has been awarded $250,000 after a Baltimore city jury found she was inappropriately restrained at Johns Hopkins Hospital following a 2007 procedure.

The parents and home nurse of Brooke Greenberg discovered bruising on Brooke’s arms and legs after she returned home from surgery to replace her feeding tube. A jury of four women and two men in Baltimore City Circuit Court determined Friday the hospital’s breach of the standard of care caused the bruising and awarded damages for both physical pain and emotional anguish.

The hospital denies any abuse took place but has not decided whether to appeal the verdict, according to a written statement provided by a spokesman.

Brooke Greenberg turned 17 last month but looks and acts like a normal infant. She has been the subject of many news stories and documentaries, including a TLC special, “Child Frozen in Time.” Scientists continue to study her DNA to learn more about her aging process and in an attempt to explain her condition, which has never been diagnosed as any type of genetic mutation.

Doctors at Hopkins had cared for Brooke when she experienced health problems early in her life, and she was a familiar face by the time she arrived for surgery March 12, 2007, with her own special crib and swing at the hospital, according to the lawsuit originally filed five months later. No complications from the surgery were reported, Weltchek said.

Howard Greenberg arrived at the hospital the next morning to find his daughter “in an agitated state, sitting unattended in a swing in the hospital corridor,” according to the complaint. Brooke was seen by a family pediatrician, who alerted Hopkins about the bruising, according to the complaint.