Health
Baby with fatal brain disorder ‘saved’ by anonymous $47K donation
A Florida baby who was given just weeks to live is thriving today — and it wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of an anonymous donor who covered her medical bills.
When Bill and Meg Longhenry welcomed their second child, Millie, in August 2023, they were told she had no hope of survival due to a rare and severe congenital brain disorder called alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE).
HPE affects about one in 10,000 live births, and most infants do not survive beyond the first week, statistics show. Millie was born with the most severe form of the disease.
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“We found out that she has a rare brain malformation where part of her brain didn’t develop, and the other part didn’t develop correctly,” Meg Longhenry said in an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital.
“So there’s no division between the two hemispheres and the middle is hollow.”
Millie Longhenry (left) was diagnosed with a severe congenital brain malformation called alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE) at 2 months old. (Nadine B. Photography)
Doctors told the parents that “Millie should have been a miscarriage or a stillbirth,” her mother said. “She should have died moments after birth.”
“They told us over 95% of patients with this diagnosis don’t survive past the first few months … and anyone who survives past that requires an enormous deal of medical care, like feeding tubes and breathing tubes,” said Bill Longhenry. “Usually they have no brain function.”
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After spending two months in the hospital, Millie was sent home on hospice care with four to six months to live — but the Longhenrys weren’t ready to give up.
“God had something else in mind,” said Bill Longhenry. “God had a different plan, and only God was able to really make that decision.”
“Millie should have been a miscarriage or a stillbirth,” doctors told the baby’s parents.
A friend recommended that Millie’s parents connect with Dr. Brandon Crawford, a functional neurologist at the NeuroSolution Center of Austin, who specializes in using non-invasive techniques without drugs or surgery.
Upon reviewing MRIs and examining Millie, Crawford said he saw “huge potential.”
Millie, pictured with her big brother, Theo, was born with the most severe form of alobar holoprosencephaly. (Nadine B. Photography)
While much of her brain is missing, he said, the higher portion is “relatively intact and functioning well,” he told Fox News Digital.
“I started to get the idea that this kiddo is really trying — she’s not on the decline, she’s actually really fighting to live her life in this world.”
Defying the odds
Under Crawford’s care, Millie began a treatment plan that included laser light therapies, acoustic wave therapy that uses sound waves to stimulate natural healing processes, and primitive reflex integration, which “retrains” the brain-body connection and helps babies learn to better control their movements.
Dr. Marcella Madera, a neurosurgeon who serves as NeuroSolution’s medical director, also collaborates on Millie’s treatment to ensure safety and efficacy.
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“It’s this combination of regenerative medicine, developmental functional neurology, and photobiomodulation that’s sparking and fueling her brain development and building neuroplasticity,” Crawford told Fox News Digital in a separate interview.
“For example, she can clearly see and she responds to visual cues — yet she doesn’t have the majority of those visual pathways developed in her brain,” he went on. “That means her brain has rewired and remapped the ability to see, and that’s the amazing part, that the brain is able to do that.”
At NeuroSolution Center of Austin, Millie began a treatment plan that included laser light therapies, acoustic wave therapy that uses sound waves to stimulate natural healing processes, and primitive reflex integration. (Bill and Meg Longhenry)
Bill Longhenry describes the treatment as “combining physical therapy with neural functions.”
Today, Crawford said, Millie is not only surviving, but thriving — something that is very rare for this condition.
“She continues to grow and develop and is getting stronger,” he said. “We’re working on crawling with her right now — that’s unheard of for this. Her joint attention continues to improve, even her ability to eat.”
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Millie is also starting to vocalize, Crawford said, saying “Mom” and “Dad” and communicating with her big brother, Theo.
“She’s got a spunky little personality, and it’s amazing,” he said. “Honestly, if you look at her and interact with her in person and then look at her MRI, you wouldn’t think it’s the same kid.”
Millie is smiling, laughing and responding to her name. She also understands people’s speech and uses sign language, her family said. (Nadine B. Photography)
Millie is smiling, laughing and responding to her name. She also understands people’s speech and is using sign language.
“Millie would not be here today if we weren’t doing the different things to help her brain, to help her rewire,” added Meg Longhenry.
Answered prayers
Last month, Millie’s family faced the possibility of canceling her intensive neurological therapy due to financial constraints.
Meg Longhenry had recently let Crawford know they would have to cancel their next treatment due to lack of funds — but he told her to come in anyway.
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“I said, don’t worry about it, just come. There’s no way I’m dropping care with Millie — we’ve come too far.”
On the morning of March 27, as Crawford’s team was about to perform another regenerative medicine procedure with Millie, they prayed for divine intervention, he told Fox News Digital.
“A couple of hours later, we got the random phone call,” he said. “It was another patient who has been following Millie’s story, and she said, ‘I feel like I’m supposed to donate something for Millie’s case, and my front desk said, well, that would be amazing.”
Bill Longhenry is pictured holding his daughter, Millie. “She continues to grow and develop and is getting stronger,” he said. (Bill and Meg Longhenry)
The donor offered to cover the total outstanding balance for Millie’s treatment — more than $47,000.
“It’s just impossible to understand that level of generosity from a stranger,” said Bill Longhenry.
“We have to pursue this treatment, but it’s not covered by insurance, so we’re just doing whatever we can to make it work.”
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Ultimately, the Longhenrys did find out who covered the medical expenses — a previous patient of Dr Crawford’s. They were able to call her and thank her for the donation.
While this anonymous gift clears a major financial hurdle, Millie’s journey is far from over, the family shared.
Millie is pictured with her big brother, Theo. In March, an anonymous donor called NeuroSolution Center of Austin and offered to cover the Longhenrys’ outstanding medical debt. (Bill and Meg Longhenry)
She will require follow-up therapy every four to six months, specialized home equipment and travel for continued care, which insurance does not cover.
“I think the finances are always really scary for us … but there’s not a price that I could put on her life,” Meg Longhery said. “I’ll continue to fight and do what I need to do so she can have the best life that she can.”
“There’s not a price that I could put on her life.”
The family also relies heavily on their faith, believing that Jesus worked through Dr. Campbell to help save Millie’s life, according to her mother.
“We serve such a big God that he is greater than our biggest fears — he is the greatest physician, and he aligns us with where we need to be and who we need to be,” she said.
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“And it’s so encouraging to see the growth that we were told repeatedly we wouldn’t see.”
For more information about Millie’s journey and progress, people can visit MovingMountainsForMillie.org or @movingmountainsformillie on Instagram.
Health
Heart disease threat projected to climb sharply for key demographic
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
Health
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Health
Common vision issue linked to type of lighting used in Americans’ homes
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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