Children, they grow up so fast. It seems like you bring them home from the hospital and then in the blink of an eye, they’re heading off to college to start their own lives. It’s tough being a parent, a thankless job, at best, but watching your child grow up and achieve independence is the true sign of success.
Darci’s Baby Boy
Michigan native, Darci Brown, was thrilled when she gave birth to her healthy baby boy. Unfortunately, her baby, Broc, began to grow way ahead of the normal development curve. He towered over his classmates. When Broc reached kindergarten age, he was 5 ft tall. Doctor’s ran test after test to figure out what was causing Broc’s rapid growth…
The Diagnosis
Broc’s doctors ran countless tests, trying to get down to the bottom of Broc’s exponentially high growth rate. They had some hypotheses, though, and then, finally, after hundreds of tests, they figured it out. When they broke the news to Broc’s family, they were devastated. The problem was much worse than they thought…
Larger Than the Rest
Before the doctor’s had figured out just what was going on with Broc, he appeared to be developing just like his peers in kindergarten, outside of his size. While most 5-year-old boys measure under 4 ft tall, Broc towered them at 5’2″. It was visually obvious that something was going on…
A Rare Form
At the tender age of five, Broc Brown received a rare diagnosis that affects about one in every 15,000 people. After a tense wait, doctors finally determined that he had a hereditary condition called Sotos Syndrome, which is also referred to as “cerebral gigantism.” Doctors told Darci that it was unlikely that her son would live to see adulthood…
Sotos Syndrome
The hereditary condition facilitates rapid, taller-than-average growth in newborns until the teenage years. By adulthood, however, most sufferers have settled into a normal height for an adult and there is nothing more to worry about. But not in Broc’s case…
Larger Than Life
Size wasn’t the only thing that occurred in those with Sotos. Many who had the disorder also experienced developmental delays, like learning disabilities, slower social skills, ADHD or OCD, and autism. To make matter worse, for a few there was also something much more serious to worry about…
Living with Sotos
Like others with Sotos syndrome, Broc had experienced many of the long list of symptoms. “He has ADHD and intermediate explosive disorder,” Darci stated. She explained the latter behavioral complication further, adding, “When he gets mad, he’s mad.” With a boy this size, this was scary…
Going Up
Broc had hit 5’2″ in kindergarten, and by age 11, he was six feet tall. Three years later, at age 14, he reached seven feet. His mother had said, “He could easily grow six inches a year,” and she wasn’t wrong…
Ups and Downs
Broc’s mom stated, “It wouldn’t take him two seconds to pop a hole in the wall—it could be very dangerous if he wasn’t on medication and able to be calmed.” With medication, though, Darci said he son was a ball of love and was always happy and excited. But physically, he struggled…
Chronic Pain
Broc felt growing pains unlike any other human. He described this constant pain, saying, “It kind of feels like a big tennis racket has gone through my back.” Broc was not able to take standard painkillers, though, because he was born with only one kidney and his doctors were concerned that as it was already overworked from the mere size of him, it could not withstand pain meds, too. He needed to do something…
Trying Other Methods
Broc worked hard at home with some pain reducing therapy. He said, “I do stuff to stop it hurting and it makes me feel like there’s a needle gone through it – it’s hard to deal with. I just wish the doctors could do something to help my pain.” But this was new territory for his doctors…
Getting Some Answers
To help her son, Darci packed up her family and headed from Jackson to Little Rock Arkansas Children’s Center. Broc has a consult with Dr. Bradley Schaefer, an expert in Sotos syndrome. He had both good and bad news to share with them…
New Lease on Life
While Dr. Schaefer was unable to help Broc with the chronic spinal pain, he was, on the other hand, confident that he could reverse the original prognosis that Broc would not live to see adulthood. This provided long term relief and eliminated a lot of fear that had crushed Broc and his family…
A Better Broc
In 2016, Dr. Schaefer said, “Broc is easily the tallest man I have ever seen. Unfortunately, he will always have to deal with some form of pain, but I believe that he will now have a regular life span.” Broc agreed, adding that is was “the best thing I could have heard.”
Life From Above
When he turned 19, Broc was 7’8″ tall. The only person taller than him, was Turkish farmer, Sultan Kosen, the world’s tallest man, who is 8′ 2″. At this extreme height, daily tasks weren’t quite so easy…
Helping Hands
While the world at large was curious to see if Broc continued to grow, his local community wanted to help out him and his family in much more practical ways. They had seen firsthand the difficulties and expense of clothing, housing, and feeding one of the tallest humans on earth…
Custom Everything
Because of his size, clothes and shoes sold at your standard stores did not even come close to fitting Broc. For that reason, he wore customized items from head to toe, which was very expensive for his family. His socks alone ran them $20 a pair due to his size 28 feet. He also needed a custom-built bed and chair, with price tags over $1,000. Things were tight for Broc’s family…
Coming Together
The community had come through and raised $10,400 for Broc. His mother said, though, “It didn’t last long, we had a lot of outfits, but within a year he was out of them and it was time to do it all again.” The struggles kept coming…
For Himself
With the financial burden aside, Broc’s family wants Broc’s life to be otherwise as normal as possible. Broc said that in the future he would like to work for a sporting goods store and help out his family financially…
Their Strong Connection
With the deadline on his life lifted, Broc is most looking forward to a long and happy life. Darci said that all he wants for her son is “a good life and is happy with everything he ever does.”