''Extraordinary People'' is a
television documentary series broadcast on
Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. Each programme follows the lives of people with a
rare medical condition and/or unusual
ability. People featured have or had rare illnesses such as
rabies and eye cancer. Many of these people do activities previously thought impossible for people in their condition.
The show began airing on 28 March 2003.
List of people featured
*Petero Byakatonda, a
Crouzon syndrome
Crouzon syndrome is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder known as a branchial arch syndrome. Specifically, this syndrome affects the first branchial (or pharyngeal) arch, which is the precursor of the maxilla and mandible. Since the branchial ...
patient
*Ellie, Georgie, Holly, and Jessica Carles, the only
identical quadruplets in Britain
*David Fitzpatrick,
fugue state (amnesia) sufferer
*
Jeanna Giese, the first
rabies survivor, who was administered the
Milwaukee protocol after being bitten by an infected bat
*
Abby and Brittany Hensel,
dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins
*
Akrit Jaswal, who performed his first surgery at age seven
*
Dede Koswara, an Indonesian man with a form of HPV (
epidermodysplasia verruciformis) which causes tree-like growths
*Florence "Flo" & Katherine "Kay" Lyman, identical twin female
autistic savants
*Cameron Macaulay, a boy who claims to have memories of a
past life on the Island of
Barra, Scotland.
*
José Mestre, who suffered a huge, life-threatening facial tumor
*John and Jeanette Murphy, an American couple who, in addition to having four children of their own, have adopted 23 with
special needs
*
Hayley Okines
Hayley Leanne Okines (3 December 1997 – 2 April 2015) was an English author and activist who was a sufferer of the extremely rare aging disease progeria. She was known for spreading awareness of the condition. Although the average life ...
, an English girl who had
progeria
*
Derek Paravicini, a blind
savant and
musical prodigy
*
Kim Peek
Laurence Kim Peek (November 11, 1951December 19, 2009) was an People of the United States, American savant syndrome, savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had an exceptional memory, but he also experienced social difficulties, possibly resulting fr ...
, a
savant
*
Oscar Pistorius
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (; ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African convicted murderer and former professional sprinter. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old owing to a congenital defect; he was born missing the o ...
, amputee athlete
*Sarah Scantlin, who awoke and began speaking again after twenty years in a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
*
Mandy Sellars, woman whose legs grew to life-threatening proportions
*
Shiloh Pepin
Sirenomelia, also called mermaid syndrome, is a rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving the appearance of a mermaid's tail, hence the nickname.
Classification
Sirenomelia is classified by the skeletal structure o ...
, a girl who had
sirenomelia or Mermaid Syndrome
*
Budhia Singh
Budhia Singh (born 2002) is an Indian long-distance runner who became notable for his athletic feats as a child. He has been acclaimed as the world's youngest marathon runner. He ran from Puri to Bhubaneswar at the age of five covering in seven ...
, an Indian boy who ran a 40-mile marathon at the age of four
*
Daniel Tammet, an
autistic savant with
synesthesia
Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who re ...
*
Ben Underwood, an American man who had lost both eyes to
retinal cancer, but was able to use
echolocation to help him navigate the environment and use objects
*Luciana Wulken, a young girl with
fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
* Zahra Aboutalib, a woman from Morocco who lived for 46 years carrying a
lithopedion after the death of an
abdominal fetus
* Jane Ingram, an English woman from
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
who successfully gave birth to healthy triplets, one of whom had implanted in her abdomen
References
External links
Official show website*
Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming
2000s British documentary television series
2003 British television series debuts
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