Family of Blue skin color people

Two centuries ago in the year 1820, a man named Martin Fugate who was a french orphan, settled in the troublesome Creek of Eastern Kentucky. For settling here, his reason was settling after marriage, like another human being on this planet. But there was a slight twist in the story. Fugate wasn’t like the other humans present on the planet. He had a rare genetic condition due to which his skin color was striking indigo blue. Despite his condition, Fugate got a women whose name was Elizabeth Smith. It is said that Elizabeth Smith was described as ‘Being as pale as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows.’ Fugate and Elizabeth got married but surprisingly they didn’t know that both of them have a gene of Recessive Methamoglobinemia because of which their skin color s pale or blue. After marriage, Fugate and Elizabeth had 7 kids out of which the skin color of 4 of them was blue. The localities around them started calling them ‘Blue Fugates.’ Now the locality in which the blue Fugates were staying, was very rural and isolated area where even basic infrastructure was lacking like, even proper roads were not available. Now from this, you can guess that these localities were so backward in terms of infrastructure and thinking, both. And in between this backwardness, if you see a blue family, then it’s over. There were very less families staying in their locality. And even from those few families, some were ELIZABETH’S RELATIVES. And for these families to see a blue family everyday, was very weird and abnormal. And fr this reason, they started ignoring and isolating the Fugates family.

They were scared that if the marriage of any of their family member marries any member of the Fugate family then the Met-H gene will transfer to them too and their children born in the future will be of blue color. This was scientifically right too and unfortunately, they would later have to isolate their offspring in the end. But, Fugates couldn’t spend their life like this. So they decided that they will start in breeding. Inbreeding at that time was not so surprising or taboo culture because people at that time would marry their cousins or siblings. But downside of inbreeding is that, the inbred humans, they often carried mental and physical disorders. And the same happened with the Fugates. Because inbreeding, the Met-H gene was preserved in their family because of which their lineage went on for a long time. Just as time passed, the descendants of the Fugates family started settling in the different parts. And they got acceptance in different countries because of which people started viewing them as normal individuals. And because of this, it became possible for them to marry someone outside of their family who do not share their genes.

The Rare GENETIC condition:

Now I’ve said ‘Met-H gene’ so many times then you might be confused. what is this condition? Methamoglobinemia This is such a condition which happens because of the overproduction of Methemoglobinemia. Because of its overproduction, the body tissues don.t get the required amount of oxygen. Because of which, the skin color eventually becomes blue. usually, this condition is hereditary or happens because of the consumption of a specific food item or medicine. In many cases, both parents are not suffering from this condition as in their skin color is not blue. But it is still seen that the gene is present in them. But, in the cases of Fugates, they had the gene present inn them and they were also suffering from this condition and their skin was of blue in color.

The Doctor’s findings:

Initially, after looking at Fugates people used to think that they are the victims of an illness but they were living a very normal and healthy lifestyle. Because of which they never diagnosed this condition with a doctor and why would they? They were living a very normal and healthy lifestyle. Just their skin color was blue, They had no symptoms of this illness. But the story changed when Patrick and Rachel Ritchies thought it would be right to take the help of Dr. Madinson Cawein, Hematologist Dr. Madinson Cawein and his nurse Ruth Pendergrass had done an immense contributions in the field of Methemoglobinemia that the research work done by them was very significant to understand the root cause of this issue and take preventive actions as well. After studying Patrick and Rachel, they compiled their whole family tree. In the year 1964, they said in their detailed study thst their skins blue color and pigmentation can go away if Methylene Blue is injected into them. Ironically, this blue dye could cancel out the blue blood and convert it to red. But, convincing the old Fugates to inject the Blue dye was very hard. Because they had become very comfortable in their skin. But, because Patrick and Rache had volunteered they decided that they will inject this Blue dye. But what happened after taking this injection left all the people stunned. Patrick’s color within minutes went from blue to pink. But after that, it was known that the effect of the injection wears off as soon as the sufferer urinates. This is because the blue dye wasn’t capable enough of fixing enzyme deficiency that they had. So the solution that looked permanent was now very momentary. DR. Cawein found one fix that he made a bunch of Methylene Blue pills for the family to consume it every day.

In fact, Dr. Cawein and his nurse Ruth also got to know through their study and research that before Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith, there were two more people who had this gene present in them. Because of this modern-day experts and researchers still have debates and disagreements regarding the fact that all Methemoglobinemia patients are descendants of the Fugates family. Dr. Ayalew Tefferi who himself is a Hematologist says that, “You almost never see a patient with it today. It’s a disease that one learns about in medical school and it is infrequent enough to be on every exam in hematology. It also exemplifies the intersection between disease and society, and the danger of misinformation and stigmatization.

The LAST FUGATE:

In the 1970’s in Kentucky, the last Fugate was born. Benjamin Stacy was the last Fugate to have blue skin and who also lived a healthy life. Benjamin was born with dark purplish skin. Doctors were shocked if the baby was healthy or not. After running the tests, it was known that the baby was healthy and was the carrier of the rare genetic disorder like his family. Just as Benjamin started growing up, the blue color from his skin started disappearing to the extent, that on his body, the color remained only on his lips and fingertips. And that was only visible when he was angry or he felt cold. This could’ve happened because Fugates moved out of Kentucky and married people from different regions and that is why maybe the efforts of this condition from Benjamin started reducing.

Fortunately and Unfortunately, there is no trace of any blue baby of the Fugates descendants. As for the other people I’am sure, not only Fugates but this condition must’ve existed in another family in some corner of the world. Now, where are they? Are they really there? We couldn’t find a trace of it. But there is one thing I’m sure of. That science must’ve found one or the other solution to this by now…

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