The little girl is now 14 months old and should weigh at least 20 pounds. Yet she is still the size of a newborn baby, only reaching just over 7 pounds and a mere 19 inches.
Suraya has been examined by a whole team of experts in different fields. But doctors still have no idea why she refuses to grow, describing her condition as a “real mystery”. Experts have carried out all kinds of tests on her to find out what could be wrong with her. However, so far these have brought no optimistic results.
Her mother described that her daughter was like a real-life baby doll. “She cannot sit, talk or crawl and she has to be fed through a tube to keep her alive. But she just hasn’t been putting on any weight,” she said. “It’s very difficult because we don’t know what the future holds for Suraya. We hope the doctors will soon be able to find out the reason and that she will be able to live a normal life.”
Suraya was born four weeks earlier weighing 2.6 pounds. Experts say nine out of ten babies born at this stage will immediately start growing and put on weight. In Suraya’s case, she stayed at her birth weight for the first eight months and has only put on a small amount over the past six months.
Suraya has now been taken to London’s famous Great Ormond Street Hospital for further tests. Dr. Jide Menakaya said, “She is a very interesting little baby. Her case is highly unusual. For 17 years, I have certainly never seen anything like this. The fact that she still did not grow after we put the feeding tube directly into her veins (静脉) was unexpected and surprised us greatly. This is incredibly rare (罕见的). Now we are working on a new theory, but more research needs to be carried out.”
【小题1】What’s the matter with Suraya?A.She caught a kind of common illness. | B.She was born 14 weeks earlier. |
C.She isn’t getting any bigger. | D.There’s something wrong with her brain. |
A.Excited and optimistic. | B.Surprised and puzzled. |
C.Interested but helpless. | D.Puzzled and hopeless. |
A.Suraya’s mother is worried about Suraya’s future. |
B.Suraya is lovelier than other girls. |
C.Suraya can’t recover from the illness. |
D.Doctors have to try their best to help Suraya. |
A.it’s certain that Suraya could never live long |
B.doctors have made great progress in Suraya’s illness |
C.Suraya will be able to live a normal life in the future |
D.it’s hard to predict what will happen to Suraya |