China’s Yao Defen, the tallest woman in the world, has died at the age of 40.
Yao, who snagged the world record for female height at 7 feet, 8 inches, passed away in the house she shared with her mother in a small village in China’s central Anhui Province, Shanghaiist reported Wednesday.
Yao had developed gigantism because of a tumor on her pituitary gland and by the age of 15 she stood at more than 6 feet 6. The tumor was removed in 2006, but she had developed a series of other health issues, including a blood clot on her brain.
The cause of her death was not immediately clear.
Yao’s family had hoped during her youth that she would go on to play professional basketball, but the sheer size of her frame made that impossible, the Guardian reported. She weighed more than 400 pounds, the newspaper reported.
Yao found work in her early adulthood as a circus freak in a show that toured the country.
The morning Yao passed away, the wails of her mother sent neighbors running to their home, Shanghaiist reported, quoting local media.
“I saw Yao lying on the bed but she was not breathing,” one neighbor said. “Her sisters rushed back home too, and soon afterward the doctor announced she had passed away.”
