Lucy Devine
A man who underwent leg lengthening surgery in order to make himself four inches taller has been left in excruciating pain.
Yeferson Cossio, 29, from Columbia, has revealed that he struggles to sleep since having the operation four months ago.
Cossio went from 5ft 8" to 6ft, but the change has unfortunately come with some severe side effects.
The surgery - which reportedly cost him between COP 200 million and 700 million ($51,200 and $179,200) - involves breaking the legs and implanting metal rods before slowly stretching the limbs via an external remote control.
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It's typically used to adjust malformations such as a person having one leg longer than the other, or if a patient loses part of a limb in an accident.
Although it can take four months to recover, Cossio is still struggling and has revealed his rehabilitation is not going as well as he had hoped.
“I’m very nervous, I want this to end, but it’s not possible yet," he admitted.
“I’m not sleeping well at the moment. Normally, I sleep four to six hours a day.
“The last 11 or 12 days, I’ve only been able to sleep around two hours, maximum.
“And that is constantly interrupted by periods of 15 to 20 minutes because of the pain in my legs.
“I have tried sleeping pills, but they don’t work for me. The pain wakes me up and I feel devastated.”
Cossio worries there will come a time where he simply cannot cope with the pain.
“Maybe there is going to come a point where my body will collapse and I will no longer be able to cope with the pain or anything," he added.
However, Cossio's surgeon said he will be to carry out his daily activities - such as walking, exercising and playing football - as normal when he's fully recovered.
The influencer has also had to defend himself from trolls who have criticised him for having the surgery - and for how much he has spent in order to become taller.
In response to the online hate, he said: “I have a complex - like almost all human beings - about a part of my body and I have a couple of hundred million pesos to change what I don't like.”
According to doctors, the number of men getting cosmetic limb lengthening surgery has doubled in the last three years.
In 2019, research by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that 1.3 million cosmetic procedures had been performed in 2018, revealing a 29 percent increase between 2000 and 2018.