In June 2006, at Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, nurses would support a 2.36-meter-tall woman every day, helping her bend down and lower her head through the low door of the ward.
This giantess who is 10 centimeters taller than Yao Ming is named Yao Defen . She is different from ordinary children. When she was 15 years old, she was more than two meters tall. She was the holder of the Guinness World Record at the time. .
However, although Yao Defen is taller than Yao Ming, she does not have a strong body like Yao Ming. She has to be very careful when walking. A fall may be life-threatening.
Why did this "giantess" break through the limits of the human body at the time and have an amazing height? What was her daily life like?
On July 15, 1972, Yao Defen was born in Shucha Town, Shucheng County, Lu'an City, Anhui Province. The climate here is also very suitable for growing tea. Her parents are local tea farmers.
Yao Defen’s parents are not tall and their looks are very ordinary. In addition to Yao Defen, their parents also raised four children.
Among the whole family, only Yao Defen is the most special. His parents and several older brothers and sisters are of very average height.
Therefore, Yao Defen can grow to more than two meters tall in the future, which can completely rule out the influence of genetic factors.
From the age of three or four, Yao Defen's parents noticed that their daughter was different.
As a child, she could eat two kilograms of white rice every meal, far more than her peers.
's parents were initially frightened by their daughter's appetite. They wondered if their daughter would be like a fish in a pond, not knowing whether she had enough to eat. Worried that her daughter would fill her stomach, they began to control their daughter's diet.
But after that, Yao Defen always shouted that he was hungry, and would run to the kitchen to see if there was anything left to eat when no one was around.
As time went by, the parents discovered that their daughter could really eat so much.
The more she eats, the faster her body develops. When Yao Defen was 7 years old, she was almost as tall as her parents.
stands with her brothers and sisters, Yao Defen is like their parent.
Parents are also very proud of their daughter who has been "superior" to others since she was a child. They often show off to outsiders that their daughter is very strong at a young age and can go to the fields to help them pick tea.
Although parents say this, they still hope that their children will not follow their old path and be able to study well.
It is extremely difficult for parents who make a living by growing and picking tea to feed their children.
When it was time to go to school, her parents frugally sent their daughter to school. But on the first day, Yao Defen no longer wanted to go to school.
It turned out that her classmates regarded Yao Defen as an alien, and no children were willing to play with her.
Yao Defen is as tall as an adult and stronger than them. The children all think Yao Defen is like a "monster".
Because Yao Defen was too tall, she could only sit in the last row of the classroom. The teachers also felt that this student was "different" and wanted to get to know her, so they often asked her to get up to answer questions.
Sometimes he can answer, but more often than not, Yao Defen will be laughed at by the children in his class if he cannot answer.
Therefore, after something like this happens once, Yao Defen will subconsciously lower her head to prevent others from noticing her.
Yao Defen, who was ostracized everywhere in school, could not adapt to campus life. Yao Defen, who was originally cheerful, gradually became taciturn and did not like to communicate with outsiders.
Even though her parents urged her several times, Yao Defen, who had listened to her parents since she was a child, still felt strong resistance in her heart.
Seeing that Yao Defen really didn't want to go to school, and there were other children at home to support, he stopped forcing Yao Defen.
Yao Defen, who had not gone to school for a few years, dropped out of school and stayed at home, sometimes helping his parents with farm work.
Although his studies have stopped, Yao Defen's height has not stopped abruptly. As he grows older, he shows no signs of slowing down at all.
5 years old, Yao Defen's height exceeded two meters. As a little giant, once she appears in the eyes of outsiders, she must be the most dazzling one.
Some people will be surprised by the height of this 15-year-old girl, some are envious, but most of them will look at her strangely like before.
The pressure from the outside world also made the originally confident girl keep bending over, which also caused Yao Defen to suffer sequelae.
Habitually bending down and lowering his head has caused Yao Defen to have a lifelong hunchback. The posture of a young girl is like that of an old man who is about to die.
Although such a height has caused a lot of troubles in Yao Defen's life, an accidental opportunity made this long-depressed girl slowly feel that there is new hope in life.
After the news of the "Giant Woman" slowly spread throughout the country, a local newspaper in Lu'an sent a reporter to conduct an exclusive interview with Yao Defen.
was very excited when he learned that someone came specifically to interview Yao Defen, feeling that someone was finally willing to clear his name.
So she put on her favorite outfit and appeared in front of the camera. Although she seemed a little reserved, she still faced the reporter and showed a long-lost smile.
Yao Defen answered the reporter’s questions in detail, and also told the reporter about his experience of being excluded over the years.
Yao Defen in the newspaper appeared very confident and no longer hunched over. She was announcing to outsiders that she was living a good life and was not an anomaly.
After seeing this report, the Provincial Sports Team felt that she was a good seedling worth cultivating and invited her to join the basketball team.
Yao Defen's parents were also overjoyed. They did not expect that in their ordinary family, they could actually cultivate an athlete.
She is also very happy. She has been doing nothing at home for several years, and now she can finally walk out of the house openly without having to accept the cynicism of outsiders.
The tall man who once troubled Yao Defen unexpectedly turned around and became an important help for his bright future.
In 1987, 15-year-old Yao Defen was over two meters tall and was admitted to the Anhui Sports Team with an overwhelming advantage.
Her body is still growing and she is in excellent physical condition. Members of the Workers' Sports Team believe that Yao Defen will have great achievements in the future.
As soon as the coach of the women's basketball team of the sports team saw Yao Defen, he kept looking at her and wanted to train her to become a figure like China's national women's basketball teamZheng Haixia.
So Yao Defen began his training experience with the Anhui Sports Team. Can this tall man really get what he wants?
After Yao Defen dropped out of school and returned home, she has been helping her parents pick tea. Being separated from campus life, it was difficult for her to get involved in the sport of basketball.
So it is not easy to train a complete layman into a professional basketball player.
In addition to having no experience at all, Yao Defen's physical fitness is actually very poor despite her tall appearance.
Because her family is poor, Yao Defen has not taken in enough nutrients since she was a child and has always had a simple diet. It is already very difficult for the whole family to support her.
Compared with others, Yao Defen started to run out of breath not long after running and could not keep up with the rhythm of the entire team.
For basketball, a high-intensity training event, Yao Defen cannot stop other people's collisions on the basketball court.
When someone rushed over to her, she pushed Yao Defen gently and she fell aside.When coach
saw such a scene, he shook his head repeatedly, thinking that Yao Defen was not good enough and was just an embroidered pillow now.
Yao Defen knew all this. She was also very ashamed of her performance and knew that the opportunity to join the sports team was very rare.
So even when other team members are resting, Yao Defen uses the scattered time to continue physical training.
But after coming to the Workers' Sports Team, the situation was not entirely bad.
Here, other team members are very envious of Yao Defen's height, and everyone is here with the same dream.
No one will laugh at Yao Defen and say she is a monster. Her height has become the hottest highlight here.
She gets along very harmoniously with the team members. Although the team members work hard on the basketball court, they all take good care of this little sister in the dormitory.
Moreover, in the sports team, the food here is much better than at home, and she can eat as much as she wants.
During this period, Yao Defen's training also began to bear fruit.
Yao Defen's running speed and endurance have improved, and he has also improved in some basketball skills and defense.
But just when Yao Defen thought she could finally take the right path, fate played a huge joke on her.
During the third month of training, Yao Defen accidentally fell to the ground.
It was a normal fall during training that seriously injured Yao Defen and was sent to the hospital.
thought that after he recovered, he could recover and continue training, but the hospital asked the sports team to invite Yao Defen's parents.
The hospital’s diagnosis results showed that the reason why Yao Defen is so tall is because he suffers from gigantism . The incidence of this disease is extremely low, and Yao Defen’s family had not been able to go to the hospital for examination and early treatment.
This disease is caused by the pituitary gland secreting too much growth hormone , which leads to abnormal height. The final result is weakness in the limbs and can only be paralyzed in bed, waiting for the body to run out of oil.
The parents even think that their daughter's height is a good thing for their family, and they don't think it is a disease at all.
Yao Defen, who missed the best time for treatment, his pituitary gland has become pituitary tumor and must undergo a craniotomy.
But the Yao Defen family, who comes from a poor family, simply cannot afford tens of thousands of yuan in surgery fees.
After Yao Defen recovered from injury, the sports team naturally couldn't stay any longer. The basketball dream was shattered and everything was back to square one.
She also thought about doing part-time jobs to supplement the family income, but due to her height, low education level, and poor physical fitness, Yao Defen was not even capable of some basic physical labor.
Just when Yao Defen was in deep trouble, in 1993, the leader of a circus came here.
Parents were worried that Yao Defen's brain tumor was in an unstable condition and were unwilling to allow Yao Defen to perform everywhere.
But Yao Defen was already tired of living at home, and wanted to go out and support himself and his parents by his own ability.
So under Yao Defen's repeated insistence, she signed a five-year contract with the circus.
In the past five years, Yao Defen has lived a very happy life. She feels that she can shine in front of the audience and bring happiness to the audience, and she enjoys it.
The circus also has a special catering group. Every time it opens, the chef will specially prepare a meal for Yao Defen.
To support such a huge body, Yao Defen needs to eat half a rice cooker's worth of rice every meal.
When his salary was paid every month, Yao Defen would only keep a small portion for himself. The circus would cover food and accommodation, and the rest of the money would be sent home. After
's contract expired, Yao Defen's declining body could no longer support her renewal of the contract. She used crutches and was escorted home by the circus.
In 1999, Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital contacted the world's number one "tall female", and the doctors at the hospital were willing to perform surgery on Yao Defen for free.
This operation was very risky and difficult, and the technical conditions at the time were not as complete as they are now.
The craniotomy operation was completed successfully, but it also left permanent sequelae. Yao Defen would suffer from epilepsy symptoms from time to time and needed to take medicine to suppress them.
After returning home after the operation, Yao Defen lived a peaceful life for a few years.
The shoes on her feet were custom-made from Zhejiang, costing the family more than 1,000 yuan. The only pair of size 78 shoes had been worn for many years, and the leather was almost worn away.
After international friends heard about it, on September 2, 2006, Wessels, the owner of a German shoe store, personally presented three pairs of leather shoes made by himself.
But in this year, Yao Defen's health was no longer optimistic.
Gigantism began to show serious consequences. On May 218, 2006, she was sent to Shanghai Ruijin Hospital.
Acromegaly, osteoporosis, hypertension and other elderly diseases have all come to our door.
Although the previous pituitary tumor has been removed, it is still two to three centimeters, acromegaly, osteoporosis, and hypertension. The growth hormone in the body is still about 10 times that of normal people. After
British DISCOVERY channel learned about Yao Defen's situation, the channel's employees have raised 100,000 yuan in surgery fees for treatment and postoperative recovery.
The giantess's few wishes during her lifetime were to cure her strange illness, to have enough to eat every day, to have sincere friends like other people, and not to be looked down upon by outsiders. Although
has been treated several times, all the treatments have only delayed the onset of the disease.
On November 14, 2012, Yao Defen, who was only 41 years old, was physically weak due to gigantism and passed away forever.
also hopes that like Yao Defen, there are still some patients with difficult and complicated diseases who can be respected like ordinary people and recover as soon as possible.
-End-
Editor丨Books
References
