A controversial height-enhancing surgery that involves breaking people’s leg bones has come under fire in China after two people expressed regret at undergoing the procedure.
Earlier this month, central China’s Henan TV reported that a woman from eastern China’s Jiangsu province spent 600,000 yuan ($84,000) traveling abroad to undergo surgery to make her 13 centimeters taller.
The name of the country was not mentioned in the report.
But instead of the expected relief and joy after the procedure, she suffered from a number of physical problems.
In addition to a bone infection, the woman is unable to run or walk quickly and has difficulty breathing.
“My life is completely ruined. If there was an operation to reverse this, I would have it done in a heartbeat,” she said.
A 29-year-old man from central China’s Henan Province, who felt inferior because of his height of 164 centimeters, underwent a similar operation at a public hospital in China that cost more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,000).
He said that after the operation, he was not only unhappy with his height, but also had legs of different lengths.
“I’m not much taller than I was before. And I’m disabled now,” he said.
Medical experts said that limb lengthening involves breaking the leg bones, separating them and rejoining them with an external metal device and then straightening them.
According to a 2006 regulation by the Finnish Ministry of Health, limb lengthening operations may only be performed on people who have congenital deformities or whose bones have different lengths due to injury, tumor or infection.
It is prohibited as a cosmetic procedure.
This is not the first time that media in mainland China has reported on people undergoing augmentation surgery, but previous reports have focused on people undergoing the procedure for medical reasons.
In 2022, a 19-year-old woman in southeastern Jiangxi Province, who was originally 154 cm tall, became 6 cm taller after surgery. However, she was unable to stand due to knee and ankle problems caused by the procedure.
