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Everyday bumps injured her joints, but finding the reason took half a century


Louise Carroll was just 7 years old when an accidental bump into a sofa turned into a major injury. Most kids might have ended up with a bruise or a scrape; Carroll dislocated her knee. Then she popped it back into place.

That is Carroll’s first memory of what would become a common occurrence: An everyday mishap causing major, and painful, damage to her knees, wrists, and other joints. Yet it took half a century — and consultations with doctors on the other side of the globe — to figure out why Carroll, now 59, was so prone to injury.

It didn’t take long for Carroll, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand, to adapt to her strangely flexible joints. As a teenager, she developed elaborate techniques using bandages and tape to anchor her legs and wrists in place.

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