Video, Robert Wadlow – Tallest Man in History

[Johnboy60]

Robert Wadlow is The Tallest Man in History!

Robert Pershing Wadlow is the tallest person in history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow is sometimes known as the Alton Giant or Giant of Illinois because he was born and grew up in Alton, Illinois.Wikipedia

Born in 1918, Robert is still to this day known as the tallest person in medical history. When the Pathe cameras went to film him in 1935, he was a mere 8′ 1 1/2″. When they returned the next year, he was 8 ft 4″. By the time of his death at just aged 22, he had grown to 8 ft 11”.

Robert Wadlow - Tallest Man in History - Amazing Earth

 

[epluribus36]

My Mom, who was also born in 1918 and is now 95, saw Robert Wadlow as a young girl in Neosho, Missouri (she was the young girl, not him :+). She said they folded him into a car somehow when he left.

How rough life must've been for him! The reason he was so big was due to a disease of the pituatary gland, he just kept growing and growing until an infection on his foot finally killed him.

 

[jayem]

I have heard that at his autopsy, his pituitary gland was the size of a small grapefruit.

Pituitary giants often have problems with their extremities. The reason is that nerve development is slower than bone and connective tissue. Their limbs literally outgrow their nerve supply. They may have very little feeling in their feet and ankles. Just like patients with diabetic nerve damage, they can injure their joints and skin and not realize it. Robert got an infection from a poorly fitting leg brace. And this was before penicillin was readily available for general use.

 

[Supreme]

Poor guy. Life must've been pretty grim. Still, he looks like he was a cheerful enough fellow, and clearly had a soft heart.