18/01/2020
The man who couldn’t move for over 20 years
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Peter Cluckley, born September 16, 1882, was only 20 years old when he was diagnosed with an unknown disease, where his bone joints started to fuse. At age 22, he was put in a sitting position, as he wasn’t able to move anymore.
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The last time Cluckley was able to feed himself was August 3, 1912, after that his jaw fused together and wasn’t able to move for more than an inch. The doctors removed his front teeth, so he could be fed soft foods.
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Before his disease, Cluckley was an army veteran who served in the Philippines after the Spanish- American war. Two months after his second Army enlistment, he started to get joint pains and stiffness. He got treated twice for it, but there was little they could do for him. Cluckley was send to an Retirement Home, where he lived the rest of his life.
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On September 10, 1925, Cluckley died at the age of 43. His cause of death was hard to determine. Cluckley donated his remains to the Army Medical Museum, so they could study his disease. His skeleton is still on display in the National Museum of Health and Medicine.