It is no coincidence that two people in the photo — Adam managed to visit them in his life — a dwarf and a giant. Doctors are still trying to figure out this unique medical case.
Among the celebrities of the past, you can find not only those who glorified their name, having made a brilliant career, or having accomplished a feat. Here there is a place and the unfortunate, whom made a famous ailment famous. The category of the latter includes our hero.
Childhood
The Rainer family lived in the Austrian city of Graz. For generations, all its members were completely healthy people with average growth rates. Adam was born in 1899, he had a brother. In the first years of the baby’s life, parents observed absolutely healthy boys, but when the children reached adolescence, something went wrong.
The Austrian city of Graz, in which Adam Rainer was born and raised
Adam, unlike his brother, grew very slowly. Adults tried not to betray this fact of special significance. The son was given ordinary upbringing and education, taught him to calmly relate to temporary shortcomings. Our hero did so. He was 15 years old when the First World War began. The coalition of Austria-Hungary and Germany needed soldiers; militaristic propaganda was launched. The guy in a fit of patriotism went to the recruiting station. There, the teenager was ridiculed and driven home - his height was only 122.5 cm.
Austro-Hungarian propaganda poster of the First World War
Dwarf
Children's resentment passed very quickly. Many boys could not pass themselves off as adults and get to the front. The tragedy happened in 1917 when the boy received a summons. Adam Rainer appeared at the recruiting station and again did not fit the military in height. This time, the growth of the draftee was 16 cm more. Such parameters did not correspond to the age of the young man, he was examined by doctors and diagnosed with dwarfism.
Adam Rainer in his youth
The poor man returned home, feeling like a freak. He noticed that he had problems not only with body length, but also with his disproportionality. For more than 5 years, Adam wore shoes of size 43. The most offensive is that the feet of the shorty did not stop growing. In 1920, he needed shoes of an unprecedented size 53.
Giant
Resigned to his fate, the midget suddenly noticed that it began to grow. He was already 26 years old, he was declared unfit for the army, he did not have a wife and personal life. It seemed that nature decided to correct her mistake. The young man did not rejoice for long - his growth quickly reached 2 meters, and the body began to give up under the pressure of the processes occurring in him.
The giant Adam Rainer in 1929 could boast of 2 meters 18 centimeters of growth. He had a serious curvature of the spine, turning every movement into a torment, the ligaments and muscles could not withstand the loads. Outwardly, the giant looked disproportionate, one could easily guess that he was seriously ill.
Adam Rainer poses next to the dwarf
Medical intervention
Serious health problems forced Rainer to seek medical attention. On the basis of examinations, they concluded that the patient suffers from gigantism. Pundits have suggested that the blame for the tumor in the pituitary gland. There was no proven drug treatment for such cases, and neurosurgery was in the initial stage of its development. The situation was critical, because the patient continued to grow and every day controlled his body worse and worse. Doctors decided to operate on Adam's brain.
During surgery, the tumor was detected and removed. The doctors did the job efficiently - the patient quickly recovered. Postoperative observation gave a strange result: the man’s growth continued, but his pace slowed down. After radical treatment, Adam Rainer lived another 20 years. At the end of his life, he was bedridden, had vision problems, and was deaf in one ear. These complications were not associated with surgery. Such troubles accompany the gigantism that this man suffered.
The former dwarf died in March 1950. He did not want to contribute to science, allowing him to study his remains in order to save such phenomenal people. The giant wished to be cremated after death. Before the procedure, it was only allowed to take measurements. The deceased was 234 cm tall.
