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Real-life ‘Avatar’ blue people existed — thanks to years of inbreeding | New York Post
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January 28, 2023
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0:42Now PlayingThe idea of blue-skinned people may seem relegated to Smurf Village and other fictional places; however, one rural Kentucky family actually sported sapphire skin due to a rare condition sparked by generations of inbreeding. Their shocking account was detailed in a 1982 article by the University of Indiana’s Cathy Trost, called “The Blue People of Troublesome Creek,” published in Science 82 magazine.
The tale of these Appalachian “Avatars” first gained mainstream attention in 1975 after Benjamin “Benjy” Stacy was born with dark blue skin, ABC News reported. Doctors were so alarmed by the baby’s peculiar pigment that they had him transferred to the University of Kentucky Medical Center, located 116 miles away from his hometown of Hazard in the Bluegrass State.
Despite testing him for two days, physicians remained flummoxed by the infant’s blue hue. That’s when Benjy’s grandmother chimed in, inquiring if they’d ever heard of the “blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek?” Meanwhile, relatives described great-grandmother Luna Fugate as “the bluest woman I ever saw.”
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