Uncle Sam
04-23-2004, 07:40 PM
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9325067%255E29677,00.html
AT THE age of 33, Leonid Stadnik wishes he would stop growing. He's already 2.53 metres (about 8-foot-3) tall.
Recent measurements show that Stadnik is already 17cm taller than Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, listed by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the tallest living man. He's also gaining on the 2.72m Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in history.
Stadnik's height keeps him confined to a tiny village 210km west of Kiev, the capital of his native Ukraine.
"Taking a public bus for me is the same as getting into a car's boot for a normal person," he said.
Stadnik's unusual growth began after a brain operation at age 14, which is believed to have stimulated his pituitary gland. Since then, life just keeps getter harder.
Although he once was able to work as a veterinarian at a cattle farm, he had to quit three years ago after his feet were frostbitten because he wasn't able to afford proper shoes for his 43cm feet.
This month, he finally got a good pair, paid for by some local businessmen.
Stadnik sleeps on two beds joined lengthwise and moves in a crouch through the small one-story house that he shares with his mother Halyna.
A neighbour describes him as the "most unselfish, diligent man of a pure soul".
His friends treat him with the same sort of soft good humour. They're trying to organise a trip for him to the Carpathian Mountains to show him that "there's something in the world taller than you," the neighbour said.
AT THE age of 33, Leonid Stadnik wishes he would stop growing. He's already 2.53 metres (about 8-foot-3) tall.
Recent measurements show that Stadnik is already 17cm taller than Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, listed by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the tallest living man. He's also gaining on the 2.72m Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in history.
Stadnik's height keeps him confined to a tiny village 210km west of Kiev, the capital of his native Ukraine.
"Taking a public bus for me is the same as getting into a car's boot for a normal person," he said.
Stadnik's unusual growth began after a brain operation at age 14, which is believed to have stimulated his pituitary gland. Since then, life just keeps getter harder.
Although he once was able to work as a veterinarian at a cattle farm, he had to quit three years ago after his feet were frostbitten because he wasn't able to afford proper shoes for his 43cm feet.
This month, he finally got a good pair, paid for by some local businessmen.
Stadnik sleeps on two beds joined lengthwise and moves in a crouch through the small one-story house that he shares with his mother Halyna.
A neighbour describes him as the "most unselfish, diligent man of a pure soul".
His friends treat him with the same sort of soft good humour. They're trying to organise a trip for him to the Carpathian Mountains to show him that "there's something in the world taller than you," the neighbour said.