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Robert Wadlow Held the Record for the Tallest Person in Medical History |
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Written by Pauline
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According to medical history Robert Wadlow was the tallest man in the world. He reached 8 feet 11.09 inches, and weighed 440 pounds at the time of his death. He had hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which made him have a high level of the human growth hormone.
He was born in Alton, Illinois in the year 1918, and became the oldest of five children. He graduated high school in 1936, and enrolled in Shurleff College where he planned to study law.
His growth started increasing dramatically when he was four years old. By the time he was eight years old he was 6 feet 2 inches tall. He averaged 4 inches of growth per year making him the tallest boy in the world. At thirteen years old he wore size 25 shoes that were specially made for him from a shoe company where he did promotional and advertising work. His shoes can still be seen today at the Alton Museum of History and Art. Wadlow was 7 feet 10.5 inches, and weighed 365 pounds when he was sixteen years old. From wrist to the tip of his middle finger his hands measured 12.75 inches at the age of 21.
Robert Wadlow died when he was only 22 years old. He became a well known celebrity after touring with the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1936. In the years before his death his major height began to cause problems for him. His legs became numb, with very little feeling in them, and he had to wear leg braces for support. He was attending the National Forest Festival in 1940 when one of his leg braces became faulty causing his leg to blister and become infected. Blood transfusions and emergency surgery was performed, but did not help. He died in his sleep on July the 15th, 1940. A few days later he was buried in a coffin that weighed half a ton. It took 12 pallbearers to Carry the heavy coffin. He was so popular that 40,000 people attended his funeral.
He is honored today by a life sized bronze statue of himself that was erected at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 1985. There is also a wax model of him in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not, museum, in Saint Augustine, Florida. Leonid Ivanovyc Stadnykd, a Ukrainian veterinarian is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the tallest man alive today.
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