It is hard to ignore a Little Person.

Their disproportionately short stature - 4 feet and under - makes them curiosities in a crowd.

No one could walk past Palm Beach County's Greg or John Rice, the 2-foot, 10-inch dwarf twins whose positive attitudes and creative energies resulted in successful careers.

When John died unexpectedly Nov. 5 before surgery for a broken leg, questions arose about the medical status of dwarfs.

At 53, had John and Greg lived longer than most people with their medical condition?

The answer is probably "no."

According to several Web sites, including the one pointed to as the primary resource for dwarfs - the Little People of America, www.lpaonline.org - the overwhelming majority of Little People have "normal intelligence, normal life spans, and reasonably good health."

Little People, also known as dwarfs - they don't want to be called midgets - are born with this condition because of a gene mutation that can't usually be predicted or prevented. That means that this is a purely random occurrence and that there is nothing either parent did to cause this genetic change.

Achondroplasia, the most common form of this disorder, affects about one in every 25,000 births and occurs in all races and in both sexes. Its depiction in ancient Egyptian art makes it one of the oldest recorded birth defects, according to the LPA.

John and Greg were born with a form of dwarfism known as SED, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, which also has several types. But they thought for years, Greg says, that they had the most common form, achondroplasia.

That was, until they ran into an expert in the field of dwarfism, the late Dr. Steve Kopits, from Johns Hopkins University, coincidentally at an airport.

Kopits, who was later to perform surgery on John after his 1990 car accident, told the twins the form of dwarfism they had on the spot as they all were waiting to board planes.

"There were things that we found out," Greg says. "There were traits that SEDs tend to have that we didn't, typically at our age, hip and knee problems that limit our walking. We have not experienced that."

Those born with dwarfism are characterized by very short arms and legs, with a head that is large with a prominent forehead. The parents of these children are usually average-sized - dwarfs find the term "normal-sized" offensive - and in 80 percent of cases the condition isn't inherited, as it can be when a child is born of dwarfs.

There is a whole set of medical problems that can come with this condition, from bowed legs to cleft palate to sleep apnea, but at least one Web site resource - - www.shortsupport.org - says achondroplasia does not significantly shorten life span.

Shortsupport.org also answers the "hmmm" question. Yes, dwarfs in most cases have normal mental and sexual abilities, and may even have unusual muscular strength.

They also can have average-sized children.

Greg is one of them. He has an average-sized son, born to him and his ex-wife, who is also average-sized.

carolyn_susman@pbpost.com