Singapore doctors to help 2.33m ‘Big Zaw’
Print Edition
“Big Zaw” has known he was different since a teenage growth spurt sent him soaring above his neighbors in a remote Myanmar village.
Now at 2.33 meters he is believed to be the country’s tallest man, and a recent rise to fame means he can finally seek treatment abroad for the health condition behind his towering height.
“My friends call me Big Zaw,” said Win Zaw Oo, who is significantly taller than the 168cm average Myanmar man.
“I do not fit in an ordinary car. When the doctor brought me here, he had to hire a truck,” said the 36-year-old, who was given access to health care after a story about him in state media this year sparked a flurry of interest from reporters and medical experts.
He is now set to undergo surgery in Singapore for a pituitary gland tumor — which causes the body to produce excessive growth hormones — because the procedure is too advanced to be carried out in Myanmar, where the health system was left chronically under-funded by the former junta.
Win Zaw Oo, who left Myanmar yesterday, said he was anxious about the trip.
“I have only seen a toy plane before, so I feel a bit worried about having to fly. But if it is for my health, I must do it,” he said ahead of his departure, adding he was concerned about the future costs of treatment.
His height brings day-to-day challenges.
Win Zaw Oo has gone barefoot for most of his life in his rural village in Magway region, central Myanmar, where his parents and three sisters scratch a living from growing peanuts and sesame seeds on a couple of acres of land.
While his family was able to make extra-large longyis — the sarong-like skirt worn by both men and women in Myanmar — for him, custom-made footwear was far beyond the family’s modest means.
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