{"id":2842,"date":"2026-08-10T23:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2842"},"modified":"2026-08-10T23:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:34:39","slug":"woman-born-without-brain-turns-20-family-calls-her-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/?p=2842","title":{"rendered":"Woman born without brain turns 20, family calls her \u2018miracle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alex Simpson has just made history as she turns 20 years old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When Alex Simpson was born in Nebraska, she was a happy and healthy baby. But when she was 2 months old, the family got a devastating\u00a0health\u00a0diagnosis for her that shocked them.<\/p>\n

Doctors\u00a0said that Alex had hydranencephaly, a rare birth defect that impacted her brain development.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Cleveland Clinic, this condition is when a newborn \u2018is missing certain portions of their brain called the cerebral hemispheres.\u2019 This usually happens one in 5,000 to one in 10,000 pregnancies.<\/p>\n

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Alex was born with no brain. According to her father, there is half a pinky-finger\u2019s worth of\u00a0brain\u00a0in the back of her cerebellum.<\/p>\n

Shawn and Lorena Simpson, who are Alex\u2019s parents, were given a bleak diagnosis. They were told their daughter would not live past the age of four years old.<\/p>\n

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However. Alex has just celebrated her 20th birthday.\u00a0When asked by the media how Alex made it to her 20th birthday, her parents\u00a0responded\u00a0by saying she did it with \u2018love.\u2019<\/p>\n

Shawn went on to speak to the media and say, \u201cTwenty years ago we were scared, but faith, I think, is really what kept us alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alex cannot see or hear because of her condition but her loved ones think she can feel when they are near her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that when I went up there and talked to her a little bit ago, she was looking for me,\u201d Shawn shared.<\/p>\n

Alex has a younger brother, SJ who shares the feeling. The teenager said, \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<\/p>\n

When Alex had turned 10 years old, her mother spoke to the media and shared her anxieties about her daughter\u2019s first 10 years of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terrible to not know if she was going to make it through the night,\u201d Lorena\u00a0said in an interview at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for three years, I would sleep with her, making sure that she\u2019s breathing, making sure that she\u2019s moving. Every night I was praying and praying she\u2019d make it through,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

Shawn also shared back then that he hoped people would see his daughter\u2019s life is valuable despite her\u00a0disability.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0said, \u201cA lot of people think she\u2019s just a vegetable, and we have heard tons of negative comments. It\u2019s one of our missions in life to let people know that just because people are disabled doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t have a right to enjoy life as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We are sending Alex Simpson a wonderful 20th birthday. Share Alex and her family\u2019s inspiring story with others.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images Alex Simpson has just made history as she turns 20 years old. When Alex Simpson was born in Nebraska, she was a happy and healthy baby. But when … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-2842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trending","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2843,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2842\/revisions\/2843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejoeroganpod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}