Several years ago my wife and I were buying something at a home goods store, and the clerk who rang up our purchase had a genetic deformity that I had never seen before. She had no forearms. Her hands, which appeared normal, were connected directly to her upper arms, which also appeared to be normally formed. Additionally, she was otherwise bilaterally symmetrical; both of the abnormal arms were identical. When I remarked to my wife later about the woman’s skeletal abnormalities, she told me that at one time there was a female newscaster in the Los Angeles area who has the same congenital defect. Who is/was this newsperson? And what is the name and nature of the defect that these two women shared?
How old was the woman? If she was born in the late 50s-early 60s, it may have been caused by Thalidomide.
But the newscaster had, I believe, fully-formed arms but deformed hands. And it was genetic, inherited by some of her kids. Her pregnancies were very controversial.
Could be Phocomelia or Amelia.
Who is/was the newscaster, though?
This is the birth defect caused by thalidomide, but it can also happen without it. There was a guy in my high school that had the same thing. He played the trumpet.
Note that thalidomide was never approved by the US FDA, and so got very little use in the states. According to the Wikipedia article you cite, only 17 children in the US were born with thalidomide-associated birth defects; assuming the woman was US-born, the odds would be heavily against her having been a victim.
Also, Bree Walker’s condition is not the same as cited in the OP – she suffers from ectrodactyly, in which her fingers & toes are fused. I haven’t seen her in ages, but as I recall, her hands look distinctly abnormal, like lobster claws.