US man spends Rs 1.35 crore on painful surgeries to increase height by 5 inches. His reason is...

Moses Gibson is now much happier after increasing his height by five inches. (Image: @Sultank52140629/Twitter)

An American man resorted to excruciating height lengthening surgery to increase his height by five inches after being ridiculed for his short frame for years. Moses Gibson, a 41-year-old man from Minneapolis, Minnesota also took the extreme step to have a better dating life and after the surgery, he has even found a girlfriend.

Moses is now five inches taller than before and hopes to reach his goal height of 5ft 10in by June, for which he has spent a total of $165,000 (Rs 1.35 crore) on two surgeries. He struggled with "heightism" in his dating life and constant jokes about him being "short," but now he has newfound confidence.

Moses, who was 5ft 5in tall, felt insecure about his height from an early age. He tried medications and even reached out to a spiritual healer to get taller. But nothing worked, and he felt that surgery was his only option.

"Even when I was in high school, I was always unhappy with my height. It started getting to me gradually. I just didn't feel good about myself, I was unhappy about it most of the time," he said.

Moses Gibson spent 170k on 2 height lengthening surgery after being subjected heightism for being 5’5!

He said he long struggled to get a girlfriend due to his 5-foot-5-inch frame, initially turning to medication and a “spiritual healer” to try to increase his height… He… pic.twitter.com/HqoTcUyCZR

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Moses said, "I'm a high achiever, I'm a go-getter, so after the first one I thought, with all the heightism, I've got the money and I can finish the journey." He spoke with the doctor and asked for three more inches but was told that after the second surgery, two inches would be more reasonable.

After the first surgery, Moses felt happy to some extent, but he always had in his mind that he wanted to do the second one to complete it. After the second surgery, he became less nervous wearing certain clothes such as shorts.

The leg-lengthening process is known as distraction, and it may be an option for those with particularly short legs, according to the NHS website. Using surgery, the leg bone is broken and fixed to a special frame to stretch it, allowing new bone to form in between the two broken ends of the bone. Over time, this bone gets stronger until it's able to support your weight.

Distraction can sometimes result in a significant increase in height, but it's a lengthy treatment and has a risk of complications, so it isn't always recommended. Some people have pain during or after the limb-lengthening procedure, and other possible complications include poor bone formation, fracture, infection, bone lengthening at an inappropriate rate, and blood clots.

Moses says he's happy with the results despite the painful surgery. "You go home and you have a week or two for some healing to happen before you get the device to start lengthening," he said.