Shrinking Baby Maggie Agnew Baffles Doctors (VIDEO)

The Agnew family is desperate to discover the reason that their baby girl Maggie is shrinking. So far doctors are baffled by the case. Little Maggie is losing weight and muscle mass despite having a feeding tube connected to her stomach that is pumping in lots of calories. Maggie's father Sean says, "She's getting plenty of calories, but her body is burning all the calories that she's getting and they don't know where it's going to."

Watch the heartbreaking report from MSNBC below.

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Comments

[rashelleb9t9]

please figure this out because i believe i am going through the same thing. i am getting shorter and loosing wieght. my friends notice but my family sayd im crazy. i dont know what i should do.

[PlayTOE]

She was able to gain weight in the womb.
She gained some weight right after birth.
She cannot gain weight now.
She looses weight, especially mussel mass.

Therefore, she was getting something from her Mom that she is no longer getting, presumably a trace element or protein that we normally make but that she cannot make and presumably this would be due to a genetic mutation.

Suggestion
1 ) try a blood transfusion from the mother to the baby.
2 ) do a check on the various proteins to see if she is deficient in one of them.

In all, this sounds like w very very tough case.

[aaawyeah]

omg, she's so cute! i really, really, really hope they figure this out. bring in House.

[onalimb]

Hum... not a doctor but sounds like a hormonal imbalance - lepticin possibly.
I hope they find out what is going on and I hope it can be easily remedied.

[pipetoe]

What does Royal Families have to do with this?

[westreal]

Wow. I'm praying for that little girl. She's so precious with that smile.

[SecretSister]

I think that I saw another child with a similar condition on TLC. The program could have been a "Mystery Diagnosis" episode.

Can anyone recall a similar program on TLC?

[rkg]

I think so---Hayley's Story on TLC? She had something called progeria, also known as Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome.

[RainDance33]

Progeria is different in that it is an aging disease. Progeria is rare but not rare enough that the doctors would not have considered this condition straight away. It appears this child is unable to store the energy from the calories she takes in.

[katielady]

there was a show on either the Discovery Health Channel or TLC and it had to do with a normal shaped baby who couldn't gain weight.. maybe it was this baby.. will try and Google this.. as I am sure the docs have already done ... and gone to HarvardMed Health etc...
I hope they can help this child..

[Expatessa]

I love using really, really intelligent people like the Royal Family as proof that homeopathy isn't bunkum. The sound you hear is of me slapping my thigh.

[weatherwaxx]

The point is that the Royal Family can afford the best care. I believe the Queen Mum made it to 102.

Homeopathy sometimes works for some ailments.

For this kid --- tell me, genius -- have you got a better suggestion? A "House" diagnosis?

No?

[amoment]

Wondering if child welfare is involved. Can this be considered failure to thrive? Why is Boston Children's just being recommended?

[weatherwaxx]

Oh, come off it. Child welfar? This kid is under medical supervision. Anything can be considered 'failure to thrive' -- the question is, why?

[kappa08]

QUICK! get under the bed...the boogy man is coming!

[TheIndependenceParty]

Maggie, Michele, and Sean, ... be good to each other, and love each other. Sometimes the best lesson is not in the laboratory, but in the love. We are not so lucky as to live at the moment in time where man has learned everything. Would that it were so in a way. But what we can learn from you is that being here now is the most important thing.

Life's guarantees are on the back of our birth certificates, ... but never waste even a moment of your life to stop and read them, for in the blink of an eye you will miss a baby's smile or her first word. Just ask Maggie's mom and dad!

[pipetoe]

You must be a granddaddy...Sounds like me now that I have two baby grandsons.

[pokemon]

Yeast.

[Kris Nicolau]

no grains no starches
pured vege watered down

[justASK]

Yeah - that's about 3 calories, should help a lot.

[mollymac]

I think that most people responding to this story are just trying to help. It's very frustrating to see a child sick and not know how to make it better. Some of the best cures are based on homeopathic remedies.

[Kuba]

Homeopathy is a fraud. She needs a mitochondrial analysis.

[ExRepublican]

Good post and probably correct. Unusual post. Unusual, in that you are way ahead of the curve - whereas the masses minds/knowledge are stuck a few centuries back. Just read all the responses on this particular subject.

Good news is that finally attention is being focused on mitochondrial diseases/defects. The news from last year was a major stepping stone forward. Unfortunately, we have a long, long way to go re: understanding AND then treating mitochondrial defects. The next generation or two will benefit in a huge way, no doubt. Not so sure about the here and now.

[DrJulienArbor]

Do you have any idea how many Royal Families in Europe have relied on Homeopathy for their primary health care? If Homeopathy was a fraud do you seriously believe that they would utilize this form of medicine?

And are you aware of this...

http://ecow.engr.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/get/ie/691/zimmermand/1starfield.pdf

[Pennsanic]

She might need mitochondrial analysis, but that doesn't make homeopathy a fraud. I've personally been helped by my 'homeopathic remedies' book, although I've never consulted it for something serious.

[irisda]

Natural medicine is the mother of modern medicine.

[weatherwaxx]

Homeopathy sometimes works; it has worked on my pets, administered by a licenced vet. Just because you do not understand or accept it does not make it invalid.

The sensible approach is complementary medicine - no one system has all the answers.

[jacko88]

I can't even begin to tell you how wrong you are.

[southwindow]

She is probably missing the ability to metabolize some of the nutrients she is receiving... I hope they figure it out before it is too late.

[kareemachan]

The sad thing is that some of these conditions are SO rare that it's hard to get a diagnosis before the patient dies.

[Aabby]

Get well, Angele. God is with you.

[southwindow]

didn't he do this to her?

[Mabo]

No.

[SilentShout]

No. There is no god, just cruel, fickle luck.

[kareemachan]

I have to say that even with something that isn't a total mystery to doctors, it can take way too long to come up with a diagnosis. My kid had something wrong, but it took a bunch of different doctors, tests, and finally multiple trips to Children's Hospital (I respectfully kowtow to them) to figure out what was going on. It happened to be a duct rrom the gall bladder that was misbehaving, and was easily taken care of. My point is that if it takes over 2 years to figure this out, how hard it must be to figure something more obscurely wrong.