Story:
Lui Hua is the man with World’s largest hand.
Lui Hua a Chinese man who suffers from a rare condition known as macrodactyly. His left thumb measured 10.2 inches and his index finger measured close to 12. Surgeons undertook a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu’s fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 11 pounds of flesh and bone in the procedure. A second surgery is scheduled to take place.
Analysis:
The message comes with a picture showing an abnormally giant hand of a Chinese man named Lui Hua, claiming that he suffers from a rare condition known as Macrodactyly and that he has the World’s largest hand. Yes, it is a fact, although it is not a Guinness world record as such.
This strange story was first reported in 2007, when Liu Hua, a man from Jiangsu (eastern China) was 24-year-old. Liu was born suffering from Macrodactyly (see the section below), with his left thumb, index and middle fingers much bigger than the others. As he grew up, the odd fingers grew dramatically along with his arm, impairing his work and life quality severely. Liu talked about it saying:
“My thumb and index finger are even thicker than my arms, and make my left hand useless. When I go out, I have to wrap my left hand in clothes and pretend I’m holding a bag.”
Lui Hua’s left thumb was 26 cm (10.5 inch) long, his index finger was 30 cm (12 inch) long and his middle one 15 cm (6 inch) long. The overall weight of his left arm was 10 kg (22 pounds). In July 2007, Liu went to Shanghai No. 9 People’s Hospital for a radical plastic surgery. Chen Zuliang, a hospital official talked about this strange case saying:
“It was the biggest hand in the world. Liu’s fingers stopped growing in recent years so plastic surgery was at last possible to correct the malformation.”
On July 20, Liu was operated for seven-hours, as the physicians removed parts of Liu’s fingers and thumb, along with 5.1 kg (13 pounds) of flesh and bone. Doctors restored Liu’s three complete fingers of his left hand — the thumb, the ring finger and the little finger. He was put to some training and rehabilitation so that he could soon start a normal life. However, this was only the first stage of his operation, and Liu was expected to come back to the hospital in another six months for surgery to reshape his left arm and shoulder. Not much is known about him since then. As of this writing, the Guinness World Record for the Largest Hands Ever is held by the tallest man ever, Robert Wadlow. His hands measured 32.3 cm (12.75 in) from the wrist to the tip of his middle finger.
About Macrodactyly
Macrodactyly is the local gigantism occurring in fingers and toes. Local or localized gigantism is a condition in which a certain part of the body becomes larger than normal size, because of excessive growth in anatomical structures or abnormal accumulation of substances. Local gigantism may be caused by a heterogeneous group of both congenital and acquired conditions. In case of Macrodactyly, sometimes an entire limb may be enlarged, as you can see in pictures above.
Hoax or Fact:
Fact.
References:
Man with world’s largest hand in Shanghai for surgery
Chinese Man Has World’s Largest Hand
Local gigantism – Macrodactyly
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