Medical Miracles

The man who survived a 500-foot fall:
The man who survived a 500 foot fall. The twin who lived inside his brother’s belly for three decades. The toddler who doesn’t age.
Medical history recent and otherwise is filled with jaw-dropping oddities, miraculous recoveries, and unsolved mysteries. There is more to these cases than shock value, however. What headlines call “miracles” are a testament to human resilience, and so-called medical mysteries remind us just how much we have to learn about the body and mind.
We’ve compiled 20 of the most extraordinary cases from the world of medicine. Some of these stories may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but every one is true.
The girl who doesn’t age:
Brooke Greenberg is 30 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds. She looks like a toddler and has the mind of a toddler—but she is actually 16 years old.
Her hair and nails are the only parts of her body that have grown since she was 4. Growth hormone therapy has had no effect, and doctors are baffled by her condition. Researchers have been studying her DNA in search of a genetic mutation that might unlock the fountain of youth that keeps her young. Her family, meanwhile, has accepted that Brooke will likely be a baby forever.
The girl who feels no pain:
As much as it hurts, pain teaches us important lessons (not to touch a hot stove, for example). People with a rare genetic disorder known as hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy (HSAN) type V feel no pain, however, and may never learn those lessons.
Eight-year-old Gabby Gingras constantly and unwittingly injures herself, sometimes seriously. She has knocked out all but one of her adult teeth (which grew in early after doctors suggested pulling her baby teeth), and as a baby she scratched herself blind in her left eye. She now wears safety glasses and sleeps in swim goggles to protect her right eye. There is no cure for HSAN type V, but as people age and learn how to manage their condition, they can lead relatively normal lives.
Tree man:
The arms, legs, and face of Indonesian Dede Kosawa are covered in bark-like warts, which have made him internationally famous and earned him the nickname Tree Man. Doctors believe the growths are caused by a type of human papillomavirus (HPV) that has been exacerbated by a genetic immune defect.
In 2007, Kosawa had 12 pounds of warts removed at an Indonesian hospital, and in February he underwent his ninth round of surgery. He now has better use of his hands and feet but will continue to need surgery every few months, as there is no known cure for his condition
Vomiting cured by showers
Maria Rogers was afflicted with mysterious episodes of intense vomiting. She would check into the hospital and the vomiting would stop; she would return home and it would return. The only thing that seemed to help were long, hot showers.
As Lisa Sanders, MD, relates in her book Every Patient Tells a Story, Rogers’s doctors were stumped. But a simple Google search for “persistent vomiting improved by hot showers” yielded the answer in seconds: cannabinoid hyperemesis, or excessive vomiting due to chronic marijuana use, a relatively new and unheard of syndrome. (When asked, Rogers acknowledged that she was a frequent pot smoker.)
Disembarkment syndrome
Many sea travelers have to regain their “land legs” once they’re back on solid ground. Their limbs may feel wobbly for a few minutes, or the ground may seem to move beneath their feet. Sufferers of disembarkment syndrome never escape this feeling. Long after they have disembarked, they feel constantly in motion or off-balance.
The condition is usually brought on by traveling, particularly after long stretches of time on a boat (such as a cruise). Scientists say it occurs when the brain fails to re-adapt to land after adapting to the pitching and rolling of a boat.
Treatment devices, such as vibrating vests and socks that help sufferers maintain their balance, are still in the prototype phase. Until then, the only relief seems to come from the hair of the dog: For some people, driving and other types of motion tends to calm the rocking sensation.
The woman with giant legs
Doctors knew something was wrong with Mandy Sellars from the moment she was born. The 34-year-old’s legs and feet were abnormally large at birth, and they have continued to grow at an alarming rate. Today, her legs alone weigh 210 pounds.
Experts have not been able to diagnose her problem, although some of the doctors she has consulted believe she suffers from Proteus syndrome—an extremely rare condition that causes deformities, including partial gigantism, which may have afflicted the Elephant Man.
Sellars lives on her own, does volunteer work, and even drives. But carrying so much extra weight on her frame could begin to tax her heart, and she may ultimately need a double amputation.
A prisoner in her own body:
Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) can leave patients feeling like prisoners in their own bodies. Severe muscle spasms lead to the locking of the muscles, leaving patients paralyzed sometimes for hours on end, and in excruciating pain.
Kristie Tunick’s symptoms are so debilitating that the 32-year-old often has difficulty leaving bed. Tunick has undergone multiple tests and surgeries to try to improve her condition, including having her gallbladder removed in 2006.
The operation seems to have made the condition worse and resulted in periods of unconsciousness. Diagnosing SPS is difficult, so Tunick is currently waiting to undergo further testing
A so-called internal decapitation—when the skull separates from the spine without rupturing the skin or severing the spinal cord—is fatal 98% of the time. Jordan Taylor walked away from it.
In the fall of 2008, after a dump truck slammed into the car in which he and his mother were traveling, Taylor’s head was reconnected to his spine with metal plates and titanium rods. Most people who survive this injury are paralyzed for life, but Taylor, 10, walked out of the hospital with minimal spinal cord damage just three months after the accident.
The man who fell from the sky:
In December 2007, Alcides Moreno and his brother, Edgar, fell 47 stories in their window-washing platform along the side of a New York City skyscraper. Edgar died on impact. Alcides, then 37, survived.
After a total of 16 surgeries, he awoke in December and was talking by early January. At a press conference, physicians described Moreno’s recovery from the traumatic fall as “miraculous” and “unprecedented.” Shortly thereafter he was discharged from the hospital to a rehab center, and his doctors think he may one day walk again.
Cut in half by a truck
In 1995, China’s Peng Shulin was cut in half by a truck. Left with only half of his torso, Peng stood 2’6″ tall. Skin grafts were taken from his face to repair what was left of his body. Not only did he survive the accident, but he also began walking again, thanks to a specially designed cup-shaped prosthetic with bionic legs. Peng has been strengthening his upper body and, with the aid of a walker, is now out of bed.
Awake after a 19-year coma:
Polish railroad worker Jan Grzebski woke up from a coma after an astounding 19 years. Grzebski slipped into a coma in 1988 after being hit by a train. Doctors expected him to live for two or three years.
His wife stayed by his side, moving him to prevent bedsores and praying for his recovery. When he awoke in 2007, he was surprised to find that the Communist party had fallen and that people were talking on cell phones.
In 2003, American Terry Wallis also awoke from a 19-year coma. The longest coma on record lasted 37 years, but the patient never regained consciousness.