{"id":34572,"date":"2025-11-10T08:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/34572\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T08:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:45:18","slug":"woman-born-with-no-brain-turns-20-in-medical-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/34572\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman born with no brain turns 20 in medical ‘miracle’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cmiracle\u201d Nebraska woman born without a brain defied the odds as her family marked her 20th birthday \u2014 decades after parents were told she\u2019d never make it to 5, reports said.<\/p>\n

Alex Simpson turned 20-years-old Nov. 4, KETV reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simpson\u2019s parents had been told she was a healthy child until a check-up two months later revealed that their daughter had hydranencephaly \u2013 a rare condition that left her with just a pinky\u2019s worth of brain matter at the base of her skull, the report said.<\/p>\n

Alex Simpson with her family at home. WABI<\/p>\n

At the time, the Nebraska family were told Alex wouldn\u2019t live past 4 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years ago we were scared, but faith, I think, is really what kept us alive,\u201d Shawn Simpson, Alex\u2019s father, told the TV station.<\/p>\n

Alex Simpson and her parents, Lorena and Shawn Simpson. WABI<\/p>\n

Though Alex is missing the parts of the brain capable of seeing and hearing, her family believes she\u2019s more aware than people think. <\/p>\n

\u201cSay somebody\u2019s stressed around her. Nothing will even happen \u2014 it could be completely silent \u2014 but Alex will know. She\u2019ll feel something,\u201d SJ, Alex\u2019s 14-year-old brother, told the outlet.<\/p>\n

The Simpson\u2019s were told Alex would only live until four. WABI<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, if my grandma\u2019s hurting, in her back, she\u2019ll radiate off of it \u2013 it\u2019s crazy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

SJ said he is proud to be Alex\u2019s brother and has spent a lot of time researching her condition to learn how to support her.<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s strength inspires the whole Simpson family, who call her a \u201cmiracle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cmiracle\u201d Nebraska woman born without a brain defied the odds as her family marked her 20th birthday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20529,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-34572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-medical-disorders","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}