A 25-year-old man has revealed new details about the cosmetic surgery that made him three inches taller for $140,000.
Aaron Trinh detailed the painful surgery that took him from being 5’6 to 5’9. In an interview with The New York Times, Trinh revealed that he thought he was “sticking out in a negative way” because of how tall he was. “I just had to get this out of my head,” he said.
The surgery that Trinh got was to lengthen his legs, which was something that was at once reserved for patients who’d been through physical trauma or were born with deformities. It wasn’t easy, according to him since the leg bones are surgically broken before metal inserts are placed inside that stretch the bone one millimeter per day.
After receiving $140,000 from his father Tan, who felt bad because of his son’s height (the father is 5’2), Trinh relocated from Houston to Florida where he got the surgery at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in West Palm Beach.
The surgery was successful, but came with complications. Trinh admitted to having numbness in his shin and using crutches five months afterwards. Still, he firmly believes it was worth it, saying, “I’m just perfectly average, where I need to be. It’s a nice feeling.”
In addition to Trinh’s surgery, Dr. Paley of the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute revealed that in 2025, he’d done more than 150 of the same surgery.