Tsuni Momri (9 July 1882? - 25 July 2017) was a Japanese longevity myth whose age is currently unvalidated by every scientific database.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Tsuni Momri claimed to have been born in Japan on 9 July 1882. She was the fifth child of six and lived a fairly normal early life. She married her husband Tojo on 17 October 1897 when she was 15 and the two daughters.
Tojo was from a nearby mountain and came from a long line of Geitsus. They raised the two children in a small town.
She traveled extensively as a young woman and lead the creation of a night school not to far from her house. The campus consisted of a four floor building and several other smaller buildings. It still exists today. Momri, continued to be involved with the center until her health began to decline in her early 60s.
Tojo died in 1931 at the age of 53. Momri never remarried but continued to take care of her own home in Japan. In 1940, Momri moved from her previous unnamed residence to a small house in Okamotomachi, Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan.
Later Life[]
Tsuni Momri continued living in her house and working a job at a local conservatorium until 1942. She had worked similar jobs up until her retirement at the age of 60. She developed gray hair in her 40s and 50s but dyed her hair dark brown for the rest of her life on and off.
She took care of her own house and garden from 1940, until she moved into a nursing home in 1949. She also moonlighted as a teacher at a local boarding school, working a night shift.
Health Decline[]
In her 50s, Momri was at the top of her game. She felt great and she was able to walk long distances. She exercised a lot and loved to walk around the neighborhood.
In September 1942, at the age of 60, Tsuni Momri noticed a slight amount of sluggishness to her gate. She felt more tired than usual but shrugged it off and assumed it would get better since she felt good otherwise. However, by the February 1943, the tiredness had become more and more severe and Momri had to retire from her job at the conservatorium.
In later 1943 at the age of 61, Momri was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It was affecting her ability to move properly and she often needed assistance from relatives and friends to walk long distances.
In late 1944 at the age of 62, Momri was in a serious car accident where she drove off into the woods and flipped her car. She suffered a concussion and both of her ankles were sprained. Momri was unable to walk for two months and had trouble healing. After this, Momri stopped driving and had to have family and friends drive her to where she needed to go. She was still able to walk unassisted after she recovered. However, she walked unassisted through an "alternative technique" where instead of using a cane or walker she held onto her legs with her hands as she walked to avoid falls. She stated that she walked this way to avoid needing a cane.
In 1945 at the age of 63, Momri had to start using a cane as her disease was causing her to have trouble walking even short distances unassisted. She had her first stroke in August 1945 that further inhibited her mobility.
In 1947, aged 64 Momri had a fall while doing leg squats. She was holding onto a rail and doing deep knee bends when her legs slipped and she fell and bruised her tailbone. She lay in her house for two hours before she was found by her sister. Momri went to the hospital and was alright but she decided not to exercise again.
In 1949, Momri was 67 years old and was having an increasing amount of trouble walking. She was diagnosed with osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis in her legs and was having trouble moving without aid. In November 1949, Momri moved out of her small house and into an independent living nursing home so she could be watched over though cooking for herself and taking care of her own apartment.
In 1950 at the age of 68, Momri was riding in the bus to go to a market but she fell in the bus and fractured her knee cap. This required an interior knee brace and a pin.
Up until 1951 when Momri was 69 years old, she could still work the potters wheel and do arts and crafts at the home. However, she had a second stroke in 1951 and could no longer cook for herself or do fine motions with her hands. She had to move up a level in care at the nursing home and she needed someone to assist her while she was walking with a cane. At this point, even before the age of 70, she was having difficulty with her hands and she was no longer able to write, meaning that people had to help her with tasks such as paying medical bills.
At the age of 71 in 1954, Momri was trying to walk unassisted and she fell down the stairs at her nursing home. She suffered a compound fracture in her ankle and had to have pins put into her ankle. At this point, Momri could no longer walk with a cane and she needed a walker. Around this same time, Momri was diagnosed with a small bone tumor around the site of the fracture but it was treated and she was soon able to walk again.
In 1956 when Momri was 74 years she was diagnosed with PLS as well as relapse and remitting amyloidosis, compounded by MS. Momri was also attacked while she was walking alone with a walker outside. Someone grabbed her and threw her around and tore ligaments in her hips. After this, Momri required two people to assist her while she walked with her walker. She could still stand unassisted for brief periods of time at this point but she always wanted a person or a cane nearby to help her if she struggled.
At the age of 77 in 1959, Momri developed a muscle spasm in her leg that was a result of MS. She tried several treatments but they did not work. At this stage Momri would only walk if she was assisted by two people while using her walker. Her osteoporosis was diagnosed as moderate to severe at this point and she was at risk of spontaneous fracture if she walked for long distances. Momri began to only walk in her room and a little in the hallway and she would use a wheelchair for going anywhere else.
By 1961, when Momri was 79 years old she could barely walk. She needed three people to assist her, a walker, a harness, leg braces, someone following close behind with a wheelchair and she could only walk a few meters even when these needs were met. The day before her 80th birthday in 1962, Momri fell and fractured her femur. This resulted in her having to have a bone fusion procedure that left her unable to walk at all, at this point Momri started to use a wheelchair everywhere. Momri was still able to stand supported throughout the age of 80, though she could not walk. By the time she turned 81, her legs were very weak and she could no longer stand at all, even assisted.
In 1965, when Momri was 83 her health worsened significantly. She was unable to do most things on her own and she was having sudden attacks of intense stomach pain. She was hospitalized and discharged five times in one month. Momri was subsequently relocated to a nearby long term care hospital where should would spend the remainder of her life. She was diagnosed with gastrointestinal reflex disorder and underwent a surgery to have her stomach realigned.
In 1967 at the age of 84, Momri fractured her hip in a fall but underwent a successful hip replacement.
In 1968 at the age of 86, Momri was a front seat passenger in a car crash on Takayama's main highway. An old friend took her out for a drive when she shouldn't have and drifted into oncoming traffic. She was in a coma for three days and remained paralyzed from the knee down and suffered a concussion that left her in a permanent brain fog. Momri was then diagnosed the incontinence and gallbladder acidosis. The accident caused her to develop neuropathy.
In 1972 at the age of 90, Momri shattered her left foot in a fall and had to have one of her foot bones removed. She was diagnosed with peripheral arthritis as well as nephropathy and stage one leukemia. She began using a reclining wheelchair at this point because she was no longer able to put pressure on her foot to sit in a normal wheelchair.
In 1976 at the age of 94, Momri's leukemia had spread to her hip replacement as well as her bladder but she underwent a successful hip realignment surgery and bladder removal surgery that left her unable to use the bathroom without a catheter. Her abs were too weak to use even a reclining wheelchair. At this point, Momri became bedridden and would remain this way for the rest of her life.
By 1980 when Momri was 97, she was no longer able to hold her head up in bed anymore due to her illness and entered palliative care on 18 February 1980. Her prognosis at this point was given as one year. In the summer of 1980, Momri suffered a stroke that left her with a speech impairment. She was still receiving medical care along with comfort care. Also at the age of 97 (almost 98), Momri lost all of her hair due to an autoimmune disorder that attacked her follicles as a complication of MS.
In 1981 at the age of 98 or 99, Momri began having to use supplemental oxygen at night from time to time. She also had to have pins installed in her bones to prevent them from breaking spontaneously.
In 1982, when Momri was 100 years old, she shattered her left shin and had to have the bone removed. Her osteoporosis was so severe at this point that bed sheets could break her bones. She had to have the bone fragments removed which left her with snaky leg syndrome, meaning that her left leg had no bones in it. Two years later at the age of 102, some medical equipment was dropped onto her right leg and she had to have her knee cap and the upper half of her shin removed.
In 1984 when Momri was 102, she developed gangrene due to untreated bedsores and had to have a tissue removing surgery. Her eyesight and hearing were also completely failed at this point and she could only talk very weakly. She was able to request things but she couldn't say complete sentences.
If things couldn't get any worse, at the age of 106 in 1988, nurses were moving Momri from her bed to the table to change her adult diaper when they dropped her on the floor, as a result Momri suffered a severe skull fracture that left her unable to turn her head. She also lost the ability to move her hands as a result of the fall paralysis as well as the nephropathy. She developed pneumonia and had to be relocated to the intensive care unit where she would spend the rest of her life hooked up to various machines. She barely survived the pneumonia and had to be resuscitated twice, once while she was dead for thirty minutes. Due to poor blood flow, Momri required an angioplasty which went awry and resulted in the amputation of her right foot and all of the toes on her left foot.
At the age of 107 in 1990, Momri spoke her last words. She could no longer talk because of a tongue spasm as well as residual affects from a second pneumonia that took one of her lungs. She hadn't been able to say complete sentences since her 90s though. Doctors had to use a special padded system to turn her in bed since hands could crack her bones or tear ligaments.
At the age of 109 in 1992, Momri fractured both her hip replacement and her other non replaced hip. This injury required a hip replacement for each hip and the surgical wounds never healed due to poor blood flow. She was diagnosed with diabetes due to a non cancerous but inoperable pancreatic growth. In April of that year her right leg was amputated at the knee and in May the left leg, both due to poor blood flow and a secondary recurrent infection.
At the age of 110 in 1993, Momri developed gangrene again and had to have another tissue removal surgery, this time the infection had spread to her spine and she had to have a spinal cord amputation that resulted in the paralysis of her body below the chest. She also underwent another angioplasty due to poor blood flow, which helped her to no avail.
At the age of 114 in 1996, Momri became completely unresponsive due to another stroke. Within, two years, what was left of all of the muscles in her body deteriorated down to nothing.
At the age of 115 in 1997, Momri was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. The mastectomy resulted in a very serious case of sepsis but she recovered in a few weeks with antibiotics. At this point friends and family insisted that she should be left alone to pass away naturally because she was unresponsive but was in serious pain. The hospital refused to acknowledge these requests and kept her alive for 20 more years but gave her tons of medication to help with the pain.
At the age of 116 in 1998, Momri was diagnosed with stomach cancer and had to have her stomach replaced with a synthetic stomach to hold the food.
In July 1999, at the age of 117, Momri lost all of her fingertips to diabetes.
At the age of 117 in 1999, Momri was diagnosed with lung cancer and had half of her remaining right lung removed. She also fractured her last hip and both femurs.
A 2005 update that stated that Momri was in "hideously dreadful condition, hadn't spoke in ten years, hadn't walked in over forty years and had been bedridden for nearly thirty years."
In 2007, half of Momri's brain was removed due to a brain tumor that resulted in a blood-clot.
In 2010, at the age of 128, Momri's was moved into an airtight surgical tank so that no outside germs could get in. She was having new infections nearly daily and had to be monitored constantly in order to be kept alive. The antibiotics were failing and the only way to keep her alive was to isolate her. The tank was airtight and had glove compartments and sanitation equipment and glove socks to allow doctors to operate on her.
Momri remained in this "stable condition" until October 2014 at age 132 when she fractured all the bones in her body and had to have them all removed and replaced with plastic "stilts" to support her skin and organs. A doctor had dropped a computer and her bones were so brittle that the shock waves caused all of her bones to crack to dust. At this point Momri's body was extremely delicate and she could not be moved or operated on. Her wounds required around the clock care. Her heart was failing and she had a machine put into her chest to keep her heart beating. She received all liquids and foods through 50 different IVs. She had been on a respirator since 1999 and was not doing well.
In October 2015, at the age of 133, Momri fell out of her bed in the tank due to an earthquake and suffered severe organ damage. She had to have several careful operations to repair her organs. Complications of which resulted in the amputation of the rest of her left leg, though she still had half of her right leg and both of her arms.
In Janaury 2016, Momri became brain dead with no activity in her brain at all. Her kidneys were failed and she required dialysis. Her body only weighed 20 pounds at this point due to all of the amputations and tissue removals. She required constant tissue removal and replacement and required false plastic blood vessels to be able to reach all of her body.
Death[]
Tsuni Momri died from cardiac arrest while in a coma on 25 July 2017 at the claimed age of 135 years, 16 days. A storm had caused a power failure at the hospital, causing Momri to die. Her older daughter had died in 2001 at the age of 102 and her younger daughter had died in 1989 at the age of 87. Momri had no surviving relatives since neither of her daughters had any children. She was cremated and interred in the hospital crematorium.
Controversy[]
She is considered the longest lived person on record but some people argue that she truly wasn't alive past the age of 115 due to her unresponsiveness and massive tissue death occurring over the following 20 years. Distant family tried to sue doctors but it turned out that Momri had signed to allow the doctors to go to as great lengths as possible to keep her alive for as long as possible. Momri truly wanted to live forever despite quality of life or what money or resources needed to go into it. Some argue that Momri probably would have been upset to die at 135 and she would feel annoyed that a power failure was what caused her death after everything she had been through and survived.
Gallery[]
