Chinanews, Nanjing, Dec. 23 - In a farmer's family in Xuyi County, Jiangsu, all female members in the family are bothered by a strange disease: although they all grow to 1.8 meters, they are all skinny and have long arms and legs, like the shape of a spider, the Yangtze Evening News reported.

 

The family owner is called Chen Xueyu. His mother-in-law, aunt and his wife all died of the disease at around 43. Recently, his daughter, 21, also showed similar symptoms.

 

The disease, which has bothered the family for years, has been diagnosed by experts as the Marfan's syndrome, which was carried among the four female members in the family. Strange enough, all the male members in the family are not infected with the disease. Experts say that the disease is distinctive in that it will easily infect members of the same sex within a family.

 

The reporter recently saw Chen Xueyu’s 21-year-old daughter, Chen Weiping. Her face is all red and she grows into a tall, slim figure. Her fingers and toes are all longer than ordinary people. Chen Xueyu told the reporter that on December 3, her daughter said she had a stomachache. Hearing this, he became worried because he knew that his wife, who died last year, displayed the same symptom and died the next day. They soon sent his daughter to the hospital but no one could tell what the disease was.

 

On December 18, Cheng Weiping was sent to the Heart Surgery ward in Nanjing Gulou Hospital. The doctors diagnosed that her disease was called the Marfan's syndrome and her blood vessels might rupture at any time. The doctors say that her surgery would be very risky and complicated.