Adam Rainer: the story of an unfortunate guy who managed to be a dwarf and a giant

The human body is an amazing creation of nature. He can present the most incredible surprises, which are not only difficult for doctors to fix, but also difficult to explain. The story of a simple Austrian Adam Rainer can be an excellent example of this - the guy managed to be a dwarf and a giant during his life, puzzling the doctors of his time a lot.

Adam Rainer was born in 1899 in the small town of Graz in southeastern Austria. The boy's father, mother and brother were of normal height, but there was something wrong with Adam - he began to lag behind his peers in development from the age of five. As a result, at the age of 17, when it was time to go to defend the motherland on the fields of the First World War, the young Rainer could boast of a height of only 122.5 cm.

At the same time, Adam wore size 43 shoes, which gave the poor guy a special comicality. Of course, Austria-Hungary did not need such defenders and the unfortunate shorty was sent home, advised to eat more porridge and see a doctor.

Adam didn't really want to go into the trenches, so he took the draft commission's resolution calmly. He continued to live with his parents as if nothing had happened and, no matter what, to enjoy life. But a strange surprise awaited the dwarf who resigned himself to his fate. At the age of 26, he suddenly began to grow and did it at an abnormal speed for a person.

At the age of 30, Adam passed the mark of 2.18 meters, but did not think to stop. Pundits became interested in the man — science knew a lot of stories when a person suddenly began to grow, but no one described cases when a shorty turned into a tower in smart books.Adam Rainer became a regular at clinics and medical universities, where the best doctors of his country tried to find the cause of sudden metamorphoses. He himself was not against solving his problem, since the rapid increase in size had a lot of negative consequences. Adam's arms, legs and back were constantly hurting, his eyesight and hearing were falling, and heart problems began.

Adam Rainer is a dwarf on the left, and a giant on the right

In the end, the riddle was solved. During an unknown examination, doctors found a tumor in Rainer's pituitary gland, which, gradually developing, played tricks on his growth. To stop the excessive release of growth hormone, the man was offered surgery.Adam, whose height at that moment had already crossed the mark of 2 meters 30 centimeters, had no choice but to agree to a risky event. The surgical intervention was successful, but only partially solved Rainer's problem. It continued to grow further, though not at such a rapid pace.

This series of pictures clearly shows how Rainer's face changed

An amazing man, who alone in the whole world was able to be both a dwarf and a giant, lived only 51 years and shortly before his death his height was 2.34 m. In the last years of his life, Rainer was bedridden by numerous ailments related to his hormonal disorder. He was completely deaf in one ear, could not see well, and his spine twisted and stopped supporting the weight of his body. The mystery man Adam Rainer died in 1950, and his family cremated his body so that scientists would leave the poor guy alone at least after his death.