Robert Wadlow is the tallest man and person who ever lived. You’ve probably seen one of the statues around the World. Or maybe a wax replica in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

You may also know that he lived his life from 1918 – 1940 and measured and astonishing 272 cm // 8 feet 11 inches. But few people know how Robert Wadlow died.

Also read the more general post: Tallest Man Ever: Robert Wadlow

Robert Wadlow got taller than tall because of abnormal hypertrophy of his pituitary gland. But this wasn’t the cause of his death, according to Wikipedia – Adulthood and Death.

Robert Wadlow died from a blood infection. Yes. That’s actually true – and how it happen is briefly summed up in the following.

Taller than Tall can be Lethal

Not in itself, well.. maybe, I don’t know – but in the case of our tall friend Robert Wadlow, he didn’t die as a direct result of being a tall glass of water.

It was a hot summer day in July and Robert Wadlow was attending the National Forest Festival. The year was 1940 and Robert Wadlow was 22 years old at the time.

Robert was never confined to a wheel chair – however, at his height, he had to use assistance in the form of crutches and braces. This day in the forest, a brace irritated his ankle enough to cause a blister.

A blister isn’t dangerous in itself, but it often leads to skin-breakage and thereby a risk of having things from the outside World enter the inside of our dear Robert.

And that is exactly what happened. The tallest man ever got a blood infection through the blister on his ankle. Today, this blood infection probably wouldn’t have led to the death of a grown man, but back in the days, I’m guessing things were different medical treatment wise – if that is a term.

The doctors tried to turn the tallest man ever vertical again, but they didn’t manage to save Robert. They treated him with blood transfusion, but this wasn’t enough to cure the infection.

The tallest man in the World died in his sleep that night. An estimated 40.ooo people attended his funeral, as he had gotten super famous during his life.

He was buried in an enormous coffin which was then interred in a vault made of concrete. These precautions had been decided by his family, because they feared that his body was too extraordinary for people to let rest in peace.

I thought that Robert Wadlow grew to be the tallest man who ever lived – and then grew some more until his body couldn’t handle the stress anymore. As I have tried to outline here, that was not the case.

News to me.. And I just wanted to let you in on these insights, if you happen to be interested in our favorite tall celeb, Robert Pershing Wadlow.