Leonid Stadnyk
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Leonid Stadnik (Ukrainian: Леонід Стадник, Leonid Stadnyk; born 1971 in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine) is a controversial claimant to the status of the world's tallest living man. He is a certified veterinarian and veterinary surgeon and lives with his mother in the village of Podoliantsy, Ukraine. He says he is 2.54 meters (8 feet 4 inches) tall, weighs about 200 kg (440 pounds) (April, 2004) and is still growing. He also claims to have the largest palm size recorded, at 31 centimeters (12¼ in) long. These claims have not been independently verified.
Leonid Stadnik's excessive growth began after brain surgery when he was 13 years old. Since then, he developed a pituitary gland tumor that excreted large amounts of growth hormone resulting in what doctors describe as acromegalic gigantism. Although claiming to be the tallest man in the world, he refused to be measured by Guinness World Records.
Guinness commented:
Leonid Stadnik refuses to be measured by us. We have been told that it is because he doesn't want to court publicity — yet he continues to claim to be the tallest. Unfortunately we can only conclude due to previous experience, that he refuses to be measured officially by us because he is not the height he claims to be.
Guinness currently recognizes Xi Shun, at 2.361 metres (7 feet and 8.95 inches), as the world's tallest living human being.
Most recently, a Pravda news report in Spring 2006 reported that Leonid Stadnik grew 2 centimeters or about one inch in the last year, not accounting the time between the original Spring 2004 report and Spring 2005. Therefore Stadnik would have to be at least 8 ft 5 in or 2.56 m and possibly taller. According to Pravda, his health is slowly failing in that he needs to hold on to limbs of trees and the side of his house to walk about. Also a group of Ukraine business people donated a satellite dish and a computer to Stadnik and now he is on the Internet. His personal website leonidstadnik.org is under construction.
