The Boy Who Can't Stop Growing
Airdate
:
1/6/2009
He's the boy who can't stop growing. Brenden Adams is 7'3" and he's only 13-years old. But for this boy, who wants to be just like all the other kids, life in Ellensburg, Washington is a constant challenge. Brenden, whose shoe size is 19, towers over classmates and his middle school principal.
He's forced to duck when he walks through doorways. And fitting into a classroom desk is nearly impossible for the 6th grader, although he never complains.
And his favorite sport? You guessed it...basketball.
"He'd walk into the gym and other players would just look up at him and they couldn't believe they were actually going to have to play against him," Brenden's basketball coach William Lorenz told INSIDE EDITION.
Brenden's skyrocketing growth may be celebrated in basketball, but it is also the cause of a lot of pain. Brenden's joints are overgrown and swollen, and his eyelids droop so low, he can barely see.
Brenden suffers from a rare genetic defect. None of his siblings share the problem. In fact, there's no other case like it in the world.
"Brenden is the only one with this condition and it makes it really hard to cope," says his mother, Debbie.
Debbie says by the time her son was two, he was the size of a five-year-old. By age four he needed surgery to remove twelve extra teeth. By age seven he was growing multiple inches in just a month. Debbie was desperate for answers, but doctors couldn't find out what was wrong.
"It's Brenden that helps us through every day, he's very positive," she says.
Finally, doctors found an inverted chromosome that caused Brenden's growth to go haywire.
But despite the discovery, Brenden is still struggling with his eyesight. INSIDE EDITION was there as doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital prepared to give Brenden an eyelid lift to help him see.
Because of Brenden's unusual genetic condition, ophthalmologist Dr. Avery Weiss warns that the boy's doctors must be prepared for anything.
"It's very likely the composition of the tissues and their structural anatomy is altered from normal," explains Dr. Weiss.
Before surgery, mom reaches up to send off her very tall son with a kiss. As Brenden heads to surgery, Debbie nervously awaits what doctors will find.
"That's just kind of the way Brenden is. You just don't know. They can always find a surprise," she says.
Five hours later, a swollen and groggy Brenden is out of surgery. Already he can see much better. Today his mother celebrates, trying not to worry too much about what tomorrow holds.
"You don't know if Brenden's gonna be here next year, ten years, that's why we look at Brenden's smile and say, 'Tomorrow is a new day,' " she tells INSIDE EDITION.
Brenden has been on hormone therapy for eight months, and so far he has only grown a quarter of an inch.
