Tall Tales: What is the limb lengthening surgery that man spent Rs 1.2 crore on?

While rhinoplasty and liposuction are becoming increasingly popular, now a few people are undergoing limb lengthening surgery. According to the Daily Star, a 5’6 man recently spent Rs 1.2 crore to become a whopping three inches taller. The procedure on the 68-year-old Roy Conn was done by cosmetic surgeon Kevin Debiparshad, who specialises in the operation. Let’s take a closer look at what it is and the risks involved: How does it work? Dr Debiparshad, who also goes by Dr D, told GQ only a handful of surgeons in North America even perform the surgery. The surgery involves having both the femurs (thigh bones) broken. Adjustable metal nails made of titanium, which is both flexible and sturdy, like bone, and about the size of a piccolo, are inserted down their centres. The nails are then extended one millimetre every day for about 90 days via a magnetic remote control. While the surgery itself doesn’t take long, the recovery process lasts ‘for months’. Dr Debiparshad told LadBible the lengthening process  “takes about a millimetre a day”. “It takes you about 25 days to get an inch and nearly two and half months, or so, to capture three inches of length, during the process,” he added. Most people pay between $70,000 and $150,000 depending on how many inches they’re looking to gain, Debiparshad told GQ. Debiparshad said if a nail is damaged in a fall, they’d have to replace it with a new one, and the whole process would have to start anew – though this has only happened a few times. But who would even undergo such a surgery?

According to the BBC, hundreds of men in the US are now undergoing the procedure every year.

Dr Debiparshad himself has plenty of clients. He says his company has been seeing twice its number of patients since work-from-home began – sometimes up to 50 new people a month. “I joke that I could open a tech company. I got, like, 20 software engineers doing this procedure right now who are here in Vegas. There was a girl yesterday from PayPal. I’ve got patients from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft. I’ve had multiple patients from Microsoft.” Shahab Mahboubian, an orthopaedic surgeon in his 40s who specialises in limb-lengthening surgeries at his private practice in California’s Burbank, told Business Insider he gets 20 emails a day enquiring about the surgery and double that whenever a post goes viral on social media. Mahboubian added that 80 to 85 per cent of limb-lengthening patients are men and the rest are women. “Most men who come to me complain that they’re not taken seriously or they’re made fun of. Plenty of patients say that they don’t get attention from women, while others say they’ve been passed over for career opportunities because of their height,”  Mahboubian said. Studies seem to back that up. A 2009 study of Australian men showed those on the shorter side making less dough than their taller brethren, are less likely to ascent the corporate ladder and have fewer romantic partners, as per GQ. That was backed up by a 2013 Netherlands study showing women were taller than their male partners in just 7.5 percent of cases. Why did Conn do it? Conn told the Daily Star, “It (the height) wasn’t a major issue. It was just something I was always aware of since being young and, just like you said, I got the time in my life when I could afford it.” “And that’s it. I didn’t have a real complex about it, I just always felt like I was short. My wife was more worried about it than I and she liked me the way I was, of course, why wouldn’t she? So, it was for me, it wasn’t for anyone else.” Roy said about the recovery process to Daily Star: “It was very tough at first, and, yeah, it was definitely quite painful.

“But you just get through it.”

John Lovedale, another patient of Dr Debiparshad,  explained his rationale to GQ  thus, “People just look at you differently when you’re tall. I already get a lot more looks at the gym.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.