Woman who had controversial surgery to grow 13 inches as a teen reveals what she looks like now

A Maryland woman who underwent limb lengthening surgery has shown what she looks like 15 years after first getting the corrective procedure.

Chandler Crews was born with achondroplasia, a genetic condition that slows down bone growth in the cartilage of the growth plate, as per Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The defect, which can be passed from parent to child, is predominantly caused by a spontaneous mutation occurring in the developing embryo. It usually results in people with the condition growing to an adult height of between 42 and 56 inches.

The 31-year-old, who reached her mature height of 3’10” when she was just 16, said she was ‘physically struggling’ to complete daily tasks like washing her hair, driving a car, and using public restrooms before undergoing controversial limb lengthening surgery.

Moreover, she’d frequently be forced to attend hospital appointments where she would see specialists regarding her condition’s complications, including bowed legs and ear infections, as per the Daily Mail.

After deciding lengthening her legs and arms would help her achieve the ‘life she wanted’, she went under the knife for the first time with the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics.

Of the practice, which sees surgeons cutting a bone and using an external frame to slowly pull segments apart to stimulate bone growth, Crews said: “I didn't want to wait for the world to change to fit my needs.

"I wanted to take charge and change for myself and no one else.”

After her first limb lengthening surgery in August 2010, Crews completed two more procedures.

She also continued to visit the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics for corrective operations on her bowed legs and to improve her overall spine health.

Crews’ surgeries cost her close to $2 million. However, because they were deemed ‘necessary’, she was able to have them mostly paid for by insurance.

Eventually, she grew in height to an astonishing 4’11-3/4”, as per an interview with Limblength.org.

Years on from the practice, Crews opened up about the impact being 13 inches taller has had on her.

“Being able to just walk up to someone and communicate with my face in the same range as their face has been the biggest game changer for me,” Crews confessed.

“My treatment at RIAO didn’t just change me physically, it changed everything for me,” she said at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, Crews also said that because her arms were lengthened between 2011 and 2013, she can now reach the top of her head to put her hair in a ponytail.

She can also ‘sit a safer distance away from the steering wheel when driving’ and deal with feminine hygiene without the use of a bidet.

“At 4'11' I'm still really short, but I'm what I call (for myself) a ‘comfortable short’,” she added.

She’s also used her lifelong experience of achondroplasia to form an advocacy group called The Chandler Project.

The organization was founded to ‘assist and offer hope to other people’ affected by the condition and also helps raise awareness for new research on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments for the condition, as per The Irish Star.

“Children have died from complications of achondroplasia. Adults have died from having achondroplasia. No one ever wants to talk about it, but it’s true. Living with achondroplasia is a difficult life, but it’s the only one I have,” she explained.

“I’m working hard to make it my best life and show others they too can control the way they live with this condition.”