Inside a Turkish hotel room, Frank winces as he turns a key inserted into the metal bracket on his thigh, forcing apart rods in his surgically broken femurs. Each excruciating turn promises to make him a millimeter taller, as reported in The Guardian.
The 38-year-old is one of a growing number of men traveling to clinics like Istanbul's Wanna Be Taller for leg lengthening surgery. At 5'6", Frank spent $32,000 to gain nearly 3 inches in height — a procedure that involves breaking the leg bones, inserting metal rods, and slowly stretching them apart as new bone grows in the gaps. The global limb lengthening industry is projected to reach $8.6 billion by 2030.
But the path to added height comes with serious risks. Patients face potential blood clots, chronic pain, joint issues, and even death. Last year, a Saudi patient died from a blood clot 16 days after surgery. Frank himself suffered a pulmonary embolism during recovery, though he survived. The grueling rehabilitation requires months of physiotherapy to learn to walk again, along with strict medication regimens.
Despite the dangers and steep cost that drained his mortgage savings, Frank insists the pain was worth transcending what he calls "the curse" of being short. As he told The Guardian: "It's hard to explain if you're not a short man yourself, but in modern society it's almost a curse."
Previously:
• This Texas teen has the world's longest legs on a female
• Opitical illusion: paint, or oily legs?
• Woman with no legs breaks skateboarding record (video)
