Gabriel Yates, a 15-year-old from Naples, Fla. is battling pituitary gigantism and is already 7-feet tall. His condition is rare and there are only a few hundred cases like it in the world according to a 2022 report on EndoText. Despite all of the medical struggles that come with a rapid growth condition, Yates spends a large portion of his life dealing with questions about why he doesn’t play basketball. In fact, when the Orlando Magic donated specially sized shoes through a local charity called Laces of Love, that’s the closest Yates will ever get to the NBA.
Gabriel Yates Is 7-foot-2 At 15 Years Old, But Doesn’t Play Basketball
The video showed Gabriel on a basketball court, putting up some shots, while leaving a message of thanks for the new custom kicks.
“Id like to thank Lace of Love and the Orlando Magic for donating these shoes for me. It realy encourged me to get out and get active despite my condition,” Jacob said.
You would think a kid blessed with Gabriel’s size would regularly be on the court somewhere, but athletics isn’t really his thing.
“Strangers ask me about playing sports, so I mention I do acting [instead] and they start listing every actor over 6 ‘5,”” Gabriel, 15, said in an interview.
Yates says when he was younger he enjoyed being the tallest kid in the class. After all, that wasn’t hard considering he was already 6-feet tall as a middle schooler. But he and his mom, Tara Sargent, sensed something wasn’t right when he had to start ducking under doorways and was towering over full grown adults. After researching on the internet, he discovered gigantism and after a barrage of tests, doctors found Gabriel had three times the normal growth hormone level and a pituitary tumor that pressed on his optic nerve and impaired his vision. He was also diagnosed with scoliosis.
“It didn’t get crazy until he hit puberty when he was 12, 13, and he was already over 6 feet and still growing two and three inches every year,” Sargent says. “Then at this last appointment [his doctor] said, ‘This is getting a little out of hand.'”
Gabriel Yates Was 6-foot Tall At Age 12, Diagnosed With Gigantism, Had Tumor Removed
The tumor was at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., in mid-August, according to Sargent. Gabriel says he was relieved when he got his diagnosis because the pressure of people trying to force him into sports or wondering why he didn’t play basketball gave him a small complex at times. They would use photo ops with Ganriel to pry into his personal life, which also made him uncomfortable.
“I thought I was just a very unathletic person without an excuse,” Gabriel says of his gigantism diagnosis. “I could never keep up with the other kids. I ran out of breath so quickly — and now I know why.”
Gabriel’s height made him somewhat of a local celebrity. People have asked to take photos with him. His excessive and rapid growth, however, isn’t the great advantage people probably think it is.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to it now. We’re throwing ortho and cardiology in there too,” Sargent, who works in the health field, said in an interview about Gabriel’s non-stop doctors visits. “It’s just a wheel of doctors that he gets to go to.”
Everybody Wants To Know Why Gabriel Doesn’t Hoop: Gigantism Causes Medical Problems For Life
Dr. Vibha Singhal, an endocrinologist and associate professor of pediatrics at UCLA, says gigantism is tricky. “There are quite a few treatments, but it’s tough to cure it. People are on treatment pretty much all their life,” she says.
Managing all of the side effects is the hardest part. Many complications can arise from gluttonous growth, including lack of calcium deposits leading to brittle bones, sleep apnea as a result of the thickening of the neck feet that are abnormal in length and girth.
Gabriel admits that finding out all of this information is overwhelming, but he has solid family support. He’s back in school and hes concentrating on his hobbies like paleontology and acting. He’s also one of the leads in a high school production of “Clue.”
As he turns 16 later this week, Gabriel is reportedly focused on driving and the challenges that will bring him as his knees cram the steering wheel, and the height of the car roof might not even be able to fit his long frame.
“It’s just that things aren’t made for people like me, so I’ve got to adapt,” he says. Sargent launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $5,000 for the list of specialists, including neurosurgeons, endocrinologists and ophthalmologists that Gabriel has to see regularly.
Only Few Hundred Cases Of Gigantism: Andre The Giant
Who knows, now that the doctors are getting his gigantism under control, Gabriel might want to pick up a basketball and see where it takes him. They say legendary wrestler Andre The Giant had gigantism and his body fought all kinds of problems related to that condition which was excasperated by his wrestling. There are still giants among us.
