The woman with the largest arms and hands

Duangjai Samuksamarn from Surin

In a village in the province of Surin lives a Thai lady with an unenviable world record. Duangjai Samuksamarn has the largest and thickest arms and hands in the world.

Her hands are bigger than her head and she carries an extra 35 kilos with her thick arms and hands.

She became known through a documentary about her on German television and recently a reporter from the German-language magazine Der Farang paid her a visit. From that interview I made the following summary:

Youth

Duangjai, who is now 59 years old, says she grew up as a normal child. There were no physical abnormalities from birth. When she was about 17 years old, hands and arms began to grow abnormally. She initially tried to hide this and cut herself off from peers. No photos of her are available from that period, because she was naturally ashamed of those ever-growing arms and hands. She has endured three major surgeries over time, but the medical world is puzzled because those arms and hands kept growing back. It's an incurable disease.

Handicap

Her whole life is defined by this disability. She can't do much, washing herself or doing the housework is already a big problem, because as she says herself: “It's like I'm constantly carrying two heavy suitcases”. She never married, for, although she had some admirers in the past, she did not want a family to be a burden to them. She is assisted in her existence by a sister of hers, who miraculously does not suffer from this disease. Her surroundings in the village have also accepted her completely, she is even very popular with the village children.

Medical complaints

Normal day-to-day activities add to all sorts of other complaints. She starts wheezing at the slightest thing and has difficulty breathing, pain in the back and joints makes walking difficult. Despite all the complaints, Duanjai does not want to be pitied, I am a woman just like everyone else”. Occasionally she goes to the market with her sister for groceries, but Duanjai finds that rather embarrassing. To prevent everyone from staring at her, she wrapped her hands and arms in a cloth. Once a week she visits the village doctor, who supplies her with painkillers, ointments for the joints and massage oil for the arms. It's all he can do.

Buddha

Duanjai finds solace in her daily prayer at the Buddhist temple. She makes the traditional wai like everyone else, but with severe pain in her arms. “I pray in the hope of not having those big hands in my next life, I have been punished enough in this life”

Medical questions

So much for what I distilled from that interview in Der Farang. It's a strange phenomenon, that's for sure. What I miss in such a story are some more details of a medical nature. What kind of disease is it, does it have a name? Why exactly do those hands and arms keep growing? Why was she operated on three times, what exactly were they trying to achieve and why did they not succeed. I also assume that those operations were not performed by the village doctor, so where and by which specialists did that happen? All missed opportunities to make a good story out of it.

The reporter claims that the German documentary about Duanjai has received worldwide attention. I have tried to find some answers to all those questions, but other than Der Farang and RTL there is not a single website that has paid attention to this curious phenomenon.