The story of the blue family from the mountains (@theaidanmattis/)
The thought of blue-skinned people may lead you to James Cameron's film series, "Avatar", or the village of the Smurfs - but it turns out that there is one rural family in Kentucky that some of its sons and daughters have a bluish skin tone caused by a rare defect created by generations of inbreeding - meaning incest.
The Blue Family was reported in a 1982 article by Cathy Trost of Indiana University, called "The Blue People of Troublesome Creek" and published in Science magazine 82. The story of these Appalachian "avatars" first gained mainstream attention in 1975 after That Benjamin "Benji" Stacey was born with dark blue skin, ABC News reported.
Doctors were so alarmed by the baby's strange pigmentation that they transferred him to the University of Kentucky Medical Center, located 116 miles from his hometown of Hazard, Kentucky.
Although they examined him for two days, the doctors were left with no answers and were fascinated and intrigued by the baby's bluish complexion.
Benji's grandmother then asked the doctors if they had heard of the "Blue Fugets of Troublesome Creek?".
In fact, family members claim that great-grandmother, Luna Fugate, was "the bluest woman we ever saw" and that the blue hue is inherited.
Family portrait of the Fugate family from Troublesome Creek, Kentucky (photo: screenshot, @theaidanmattis)
The couple suffered from methemoglobinemia, a rare genetic condition (photo: screenshot, @theaidanmattis)
As it turned out, the baby was the descendant of a long line of blue-skinned families dating back to 1820, when French orphan Martin Fugate moved to eastern Kentucky and met Elizabeth Smart.
Although not related by blood, the lovebirds both carried the gene for methemoglobinemia, a super rare condition that occurs when red blood cells contain abnormal levels of methemoglobin - a type of hemoglobin that cannot carry oxygen to tissues.
Due to this lack of oxygen, sufferers often have blue skin with purple lips and chocolate colored blood.
Their appearance resembles that of Violet Beauregard from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" - after eating the blueberries.
Smart gave birth to seven children, four of whom were blue-toned.
Because the methemoglobinemia gene is recessive, it should not have affected future generations, but the Fugets began intermarrying within their clan.
Experts explained that they turned to incest due to the extreme isolation they lived in: Eastern Kentucky had no roads at the time and railroads did not reach the area, AllThatsInteresting.com reported.
Methemoglobinemia can be caused by exposure to certain chemicals (photo: screenshot, @theaidanmattis)
The Blue People group was originally formed in 1820 when French orphan Martin Fugate met Elizabeth Smart.
Although they were not related, they both had "blue" genes (Photo: screenshot, @theaidanmattis)
"When they settled in this country back then, there were no roads," Dennis Stacey, a descendant of Fugate, told Science 82 about this frozen gene pool, "it was hard to get out, so they got married."
Zachariah, son of Elizabeth and Martin, married his aunt and the Fugetts multiplied with other cousins, as well as descendants from other families such as Combs, Smith, Ritchie and Stacey.
It didn't take long until her family "blue people group" was formed.
A photo that recently went viral and dates back to the early 20th century shows the blue Fugits next to the white ones.
The bluest woman in the bunch was Luna Stacey, daughter of Levi Fugate and his first cousin, Hannah Ritchie.
Nurse Carrie Lee Kilburn described the woman as "blue all over" with lips "as dark as a bruise".
Another 25-year-old anomaly
turned to her doctors crying tears of blood - and this is the strange reason for the
difficult-to-view photos:
Not everyone was blue in the family (photo: screenshot, @theaidanmattis)
The cure - another blue color
In the early 1960s, the family began to resent the appearance of their indigo - seeing it as crimson or purple.
Two Pugets even approached Madison Cavin, a hematologist at the University of Kentucky Clinic at the time, to try and correct their condition.
He said they were so bothered by their appearance that they "didn't even go into the waiting room".
Fortunately, after diagnosing their methemoglobinemia, Cavin was able to cure their disease by—wait for it—using more blue dye.
The doctor specially gave them methylene blue dye - which helps the body convert methemoglobin to hemoglobin, like a vaccine.
Within minutes of swallowing it, the Fugate's skin turned pink.
More colors
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To the full article
Meanwhile, Benji Stacey, Fugate's last living offspring, who reportedly lives in Alaska, lost all of his light blue coloring by age 7, suggesting he got his "blue" genes from just one parent.
However, his lips and fingertips still turn blue when he is cold or angry.
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