A 26-year-old Thai man in Surin who is probably the world's tallest living person, with a height of 269 centimetres, is poor, ailing and cannot stand up, and is pleading for help.
Pornchai Saosri, a native of the northeastern province, is now confined to his steel bed, 2 metres wide and 4.5 metres long, in an uncompleted, one-storey concrete house in Ban Ta Kaeo of Kantruat Ramuan sub-district in Prasat district.
He depends on his 60-year-old father, 56-year-old mother and 15-year-old niece, who are all ill.
"I would like to have a bed that can move up and down by pressing buttons, like those in hospitals, and I would like to have money to repay the debts of my old mother," Mr Pornchai said, reflecting his concerns about Mrs Woen Saosri.
Mrs Woen said Mr Pornchai, whose nickname is Oaf, is the youngest of her two children. He had been a normal young child, but had not stopped growing at 16 or 17 years old like other children and just kept getting taller.
She had taken her son for his annual checkup at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok on Sept 21. Doctors there reported his weight had dropped by 72 kilogrammes, from 225kg to 153kg, and his height increased by 12 centimetres, from 257cm to 269cm, over the past year.
The giantism patient is now too weak to walk or even stand, and is confined to his bed.
Mrs Woen said the only help Mr Pornchai receives is from the Crown Property Bureau and the Princess Mother's Medical Volunteer Foundation, which support his treatment and trips to the hospital.
"My husband and I grow rice on an eight-rai field and keep four buffaloes to earn money for the family and pay for treatment for Oaf and my granddaughter," Mrs Woen said.
The 15-year-old girl suffers from an optic nerve disease and has become blind in one eye.
"I also suffer from diabetes and hypertension and my husband was exposed to toxins from pesticides and needed an operation on his right arm," Mrs Woen said. She can be contacted via phone number 08-5635-0017.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists a Turkish man, Sultan Kosen, 32, as the world's tallest living man, giving his height as 251cm.