Sultan Kosen, all 8 feet 2 inches of him, was folded awkwardly but good-naturedly into an office chair at the University of Virginia Medical Center on Friday morning.
Even seated and listing to his right, he towered over the translator, doctors and other miscellaneous folks clustered around him.
A benign tumor of the pituitary gland, which hangs off part of the brain, started to affect him before puberty set in. As a result, he suffers from gigantism, which has made him the tallest man in the world.
A native of Turkey, Kosen had already undergone surgery and radiation before a documentary brought him to Charlottesville to consult with experts from UVa and receive cutting-edge radiation treatment for his tumor.
His head is huge. His hands are huge. His feet are huge. And he’s still growing. His tumor continues to release human growth hormone, which has caused the 27-year-old to grow perhaps an inch in the last year.
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He sat quietly Friday while the medical experts spoke.
On his first visit to UVa, experts determined he was a candidate for Gamma Knife radiosurgery, to target sensitive areas that aren’t candidates for old-fashioned surgery. The half-day procedure was performed Thursday.
“It uses MRI guidance and pencil beams of radiation,” explained neurosurgeon Dr. Jason Sheehan.
Kosen’s head was too large for the machine, so a special headpiece had to be brought in from Stockholm, Sweden, Sheehan said.
They also put Kosen on new medication, to counteract the hormone the tumor is releasing. Doctors think that, once they get the dosage right, the growth will stop.
The radiosurgery won’t show results for up to two years, but doctors hope that, eventually, it will make the medication unnecessary.
In addition to growing, Kosen faces a range of symptoms that include heart problems and severe joint pain, Dr. Mary Lee Vance, professor of medicine, said.
“He won’t shrink or change,” she said. “It will reduce the risk of other consequences of [his condition].”
When reporters started questioning him, even a short “How are you feeling?” drew a rush of upbeat Turkish from the large, quiet man with the shock of gray hair above his right eye.
“I’m feeling much better now,” he said through an interpreter provided by the Guinness Book of World Records, before thanking his doctors profusely and apologizing if he created any sort of a problem during the procedure.
“May God bless you all for taking care of me,” he said.
He described himself as glad the procedure is over and upbeat about the future. He said he didn’t get a chance to do anything but go to the hospital on this trip, but he’d like to come back and visit Virginia some other time.