Miracles in science never seize to amaze us all! This time we have been awestruck by 8year old Gabrielle Williams who has the face of a newborn child. The soft skinned baby faced child is totally dependent on her mother and shows a very sluggish aging rate.Is she biologically immortal?
Gabrielle Williams, the baby “wonder”
It’s no less than a miracle when we talk about Gabby, the 8 year old girl belonging to Billings, Mont,. The girl is 8 years old and has the skin of a baby. Just like a baby, the 11 pound Gabby is unable to feed herself or tend to the basic chores according to the general developmental chart.
She hasn’t changed at all since the day she was born as her mother changes her diapers, feeds her and still holds her miniature frame cradled to her body. Gabby suffers from a slow rate of aging and this mysterious medical condition is found in very few people worldwide.
Research on similar people
She isn’t alone! There is a doctor; Richard F. Walker, who is struggling to halt the aging process, is trying to get to the genetic off-switch by studying Gabby’s case and the cases of two others facing the same predicament.
Would you all be shocked if we told you that there is a Brazilian woman who is 31 years old but looks just like a two year old child because of her size? Another man who belongs to Florida and is only 29 year old has the size of a 10 year old boy. These three just don’t show any signs of growing older.
Richard F. Walker, the medical researcher, researching on the anti-aging process, explained the situation by saying “In some people, something happens to them and the development process is retarded. The rate of change in the body slows and is negligible.”
Growth rate of these people
Richard Walker at the moment carries out his research work at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg discovered that the growth rate of these people is one fifth of the speed of normal people. The sad bit is that these slow aging people generally lug around many medical conditions like inability to walk, speak, eat or may be even deaf.
Gabby’s 38 year old mother expressed “Gabrielle hasn’t changed since pretty much forever. She has gotten a little longer and we have jumped into putting her in size 3-6 month clothes instead of 0-3 months for the footies”.
Talking about her growth pattern her mother said “Last time we weighed her she was up a pound to 11 pounds and she’s gotten a few more haircuts”.
Walker calls this slow physiological change, as “developmental inertia,” and states that it is necessary for the growth of humans. Reproduction is the next step the body takes after Maturation.
“Without that process we never develop,” he said. “When we develop, all the pieces of our body come together and change and are coordinated. Otherwise, there would be chaos.”
His discoveries have also shown the involvement of genes. Was it a mutated gene that made Gabby the way she is? We may not have an answer to this but we can surely keep our fingers crossed, maybe Gabby’s research can find a cure for traumatic medical problems like Alzeimer’s.
