There have got to be basketball players this tall. Do they face the same medical problems she did? Or is it because she had gigantism and wasn't simply tall? World's tallest woman dies at 53 INDIANAPOLIS - A woman who grew to be 7 feet, 7 inches tall and was recognized as the world's tallest female died early Wednesday, a friend said. She was 53. Sandy Allen, who used her height to inspire schoolchildren to accept those who are different, died at a nursing home in her hometown of Shelbyville, Ind., family friend Rita Rose said. The cause of death was not yet known. Allen had been hospitalized in recent months as she suffered from a recurring blood infection, along with diabetes, breathing troubles and kidney failure, Rose said.... Coincidentally, Allen lived in the same nursing home, Heritage House Convalescent Center, as 115-year-old Edna Parker, whom Guinness has recognized as the world's oldest person since August 2007. Allen said a tumor caused her pituitary gland to produce too much growth hormone. She underwent an operation in 1977 to stop further growth. But she was proud of her height, Rose said. "She embraced it," she said. "She used it as a tool to educate people." Allen appeared on television shows and spoke to church and school groups to bring youngsters her message that it was all right to be different. Allen weighed 6-1/2 pounds when she was born in June 1955. By the age of 10 she had grown to be 6-foot-3, and by age 16 she was 7-1.... She wrote to Guinness World Records in 1974, saying she would like to get to know someone her own height. "It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life," she wrote. Museum appearances The recognition as the world's tallest woman helped Allen accept her height and become less shy, Rose said. "It kind of brought her out of her shell," Rose said. "She got to the point where she could joke about it." In the 1980s, she appeared for several years at the Guinness Museum of World Records in Niagara Falls, Ontario. "I'll never forget the old Japanese man who couldn't speak English, so he decided to feel for himself if I was real," she recalled with a chuckle when she moved back to Indiana in 1987. "At Guinness there were days when I felt like I was doing a freak show," she said. "When that feeling came too often, I knew I had to come back home." Difficulty with mobility had forced Allen to curtail her public speaking in recent years, Rose said. She had suffered from diabetes and other ailments and used a wheelchair to get around. Rose is working to set up a scholarship fund in Allen's name, with proceeds going to Shelbyville High School. "She loved talking to kids because they would ask more honest questions," Rose said. "Adults would kind of stand back and stare and not know how to approach her."
"She loved talking to kids because they would ask more honest questions," Rose said. "Adults would kind of stand back and stare and not know how to approach her."[/QUOTE] I wonder what funny questions the kids might have asked, knowing kids ask some funny and strange questions.... Such as…. Q: When you sit on the toilet do you knees hit you in the face? Q: Does your car have a sun roof so you can see out while you’re driving? Q: Can you use telephone booths or were you the reason the stopped making them? Q: When you were a small kid was it fun being the only one your age at the amusement park to be able to ride the rollercoaster’s? Q: Are there a lot of drag queens at the same shoe store where you buy your high heel pumps? Q: What’s it like dating short men all the time? Q: Does you face look like that because of running into so many doors? Sorry I couldn’t resist……………………..
I would want to know if she had ever been in love. If she had ever thought of going to college. I would think she would have an enlarged heart or high blood pressure. Hmm, I wonder if her skeleton will now go on display.
Actually living to the age of 53 for her was longer than doctors had predicted. She was lucky to have a long life with her medical ailments as I have known several people who have died younger than her without such ailments. I think in her case they should take her DNA and store it as well as people like her should be cryogenically frozen for later research if her or her family had agreed before her death. But maybe she should just rest in peace as she had such a long difficult life being such an anomaly.
Usuallly people with growth disorders tend not to ever be in relationships. I watched a moving episode the other day on primordial dwarfs, and out of all the primordial dwarfs in the world, not one has ever been married or had kids.
orleander, to your question of using her body for display, only if thats what she wanted would that be ethical. My own feels are that the family shouldnt have the option to overrule a persons decision on what should be done with there body after death. that being said under current laws this isnt the case, its the families choice
Aparently, it's not known if they can have kids. It could be very dangerous, to the mother. But these conditions are genetic, which also means there is a high percentage that if a child was born, could inherit the primordial dwarfism. Sad eh?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
