Woman undergoes drastic surgery to gain a few inches

From Correspondent Anne McDermott

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- Ran Sook Kim is a dwarf. At her full adult height, she measured just 3'11" tall, with undersized arms and legs.

But the 23-year-old woman wanted to be bigger, so she could simply do more. "Just normal everyday things that normal people take for granted ... like, I can't reach things around the stores," she said.

Surgery is making her dream a reality. Last year, Kim had leg-lengthening surgery that added four inches to her height. She is now recuperating from arm-lengthening surgery, so her arms will more closely match the rest of her growing body.

The surgeries are similar. Metal pins are inserted into bone, and then the pins are attached to a steel frame. The frame for the legs is circular, for the arms, flattened. Then, doctors cut the bone with a mallet and a chisel, then gradually pull the bone ends apart with a motor or hand crank attached to the frame.

New bone growth fills the empty space at the rate of about a millimeter a day.

Kim's surgery, performed at St. Luke Medical Center in Pasadena, California by Dr. Mauro Giordani, is not new. It is being used to correct more problems these days, including a variety of bone deformities.

The hardest part about it? The wait, said Dr. Giordani. "I even tell the patients that. I tell them that this is not a quick fix to the problem, it takes many months to see the final results. A lot of people aren't into that, and I think I am," he said.

Not everybody is in favor of such drastic surgery. Among its critics are some people born with dwarfism, who say they don't feel the need for it. But, they also say, it's a personal decision for people like Kim.

Certainly it is not an easy decision to make. Kim's doctor says she needs at least one, and as many as three, more procedures on her limbs. But, by the time she turns 26, the operations will make her nearly five feet tall.

To people of average height, that may still seem short, but not to Ran Sook Kim.

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