A man has revealed why he spent $175,000 on a painful lower limb lengthening surgery that added six inches to his height.
In this day and age, it's not unusual for people to spend large amounts of money to change the way they look facially or body-wise.
However, some surgical procedures are still more extreme than others as an influencer named Yeferson Cossio revealed that they paid big bucks to leave their original five-foot-eight height behind.
Taking to Instagram, the 29-year-old influencer shared a video (translated from Spanish to English), explaining: "I'm not a dwarf, nor am I the tallest," as cited by The New York Post.
Watch Cossio's video below:The Colombian man said: "Yes, my legs are pretty but I hate them...I am self-conscious like almost all human beings with some parts of my body and I have a couple hundred million pesos to use here to change it."
Cossio, who boasts more than 11 million followers on Instagram, estimates that he spent between 200 million and 700 million Colombian pesos for the treatment - the equivalent of roughly $50,000 and $175,000.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the excruciating and intense surgery consists of two main steps: An osteotomy, which means cutting the affected bone into two segments and attaching a limb lengthening device to the two segments of bone.
After the patient’s bones are broken, a metal rod is inserted, and an external device is used to slowly lengthen the gap multiple times a day.
"As the space between the ends of the bone opens up, the body continues to produce new tissue in the gap until the desired length of bone has been generated," as stated by the Hospital for Special Surgery.
Generally, specialists separate the bones for a total of one millimeter per day, which means Cossio painfully lengthened his legs for 152 days, or 6 months, before reaching his new 6-foot frame.
The content creator admitted that the agonizing surgery was purely for "aesthetic" purposes, as he said: "Two years ago, I had an issue with my legs that I don’t really want to talk about because it’s very personal. But one of the things that had the most impact on me was to do with leg stretching."
In the next couple of months, Cossio will have to go through physical therapy treatments so he can become accustomed to walking with his new legs.
Upon seeing the video - which amassed over 370K likes on the platform - many of his followers took to the comment section to share their mixed opinions about the procedure.
One concerned user wrote: "The problem with his knees and back when he's older is going to be unbearable. And also if it's not proportional to the torso/abdomen. It won't look aesthetically pleasing."
Another chimed in: "You can do whatever you want with your body in the end it's one's, but those empties and complexes don't fix it, neither money nor surgeries, only God."
A third commented: "The human being is never satisfied with anything."
However, others were glad that Cossio was able to "fix" one of his insecurities, as someone penned: "You are so strong, it makes me so happy to see how good you are, thank you for allowing me to be part of this process."
