Dad Pays for His Son to Have $150K Leg-Lengthening Surgery to Gain 3 Inches in Height (Exclusive)

Ultramarathon runner Aaron Trinh says height discrimination shaped his decision to undergo a leg-lengthening procedure

His father, who is 5'2", supported the surgery after experiencing lifelong insecurity about his own height, and paid the $150,000 cost

Trinh says recovery involved severe nerve pain but believes the surgery was worth it

A man who underwent a painful, pricy leg-lengthening procedure said he doesn't "feel that sense of inadequacy" now that he's three inches taller.

"Seeing how many people around me were much taller than I was, I realized I'm kind of different," ultramarathon runner Aaron Trinh , who was 5'6", tells PEOPLE exclusively about the leg-lengthening procedure he underwent with his father's support in May 2025.

It was his father who paid for the surgery, which is estimated at $150,000. "My dad was easily the first and probably the only person I would come to regarding the surgery, because I know that he would relate to me the most," Trinh tells PEOPLE. "He was the only one who was capable of supporting me throughout this process. He has suffered through height discrimination all his life, starting with his own family to people that were supposed to be his friends, even at the workplace."

His height was something Trinh's father monitored as he grew up, and as he shares, "He'd done a lot of things to proactively make sure I was tall," like "make me drink a glass of milk in the mornings."

His father, who asked to remain anonymous, says that at 5'2", he had long felt "rejected" and "dejected."

"Because of my height. I just feel bad. I feel humiliated," he says, sharing that he avoided socializing because it made him self-conscious. "Can you imagine when you speak to people, you have to look up to them?" he asks. "And when they talk to you, they have to look down and you feel like you're being talked down to all the time."

It was after Trinh was scrolling on TikTok that he saw a video about leg-lengthening surgery. A Google search led him to the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in West Palm Beach.

"My dad offered full financial support for the surgery. It was a really deep father and son connection moment," Trinh says about his father, who says if the technology had been around when he was younger, he also would have undergone the procedure.

They kept it a secret from Trinh's mother until the day before the surgery, where Trinh had his bones broken so metal inserts could be inserted. Using magnets applied externally, the metal stretches the bone to add height, one millimeter a day, over up to four months, as muscles and nerves and other tissue have to gradually grow. After that comes recovery, and learning to walk again.

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Trinh says he was "extremely nervous" on the day of the surgery — which he called the "easiest part" of the whole process. The "lowest" part, he tells PEOPLE, was the nerve pain, which left him crying out in pain at times. Still, he called it "manageable."

About eight months after the surgery, Trinh says he became aware of his new height. "Things were shrinking," he says. He would have to reach out his arm to grab something that had previously been closer. That's when he realized, "This is actually becoming a reality."

Trinh's first surgery was a year ago; he needed a second surgery to remove the hardware from his leg. Now 5'9", he's focused on moving forward.

"Now that my height dysphoria is gone, I can mentally focus on a lot of other things" like graduation, his career, and a social life — what he calls "things that any normal human being would love to just focus on."

"I am absolutely much more at peace with my mind and my body, and I think that's gonna stick around for a very long time," he says. "This surgery was purely just for my self-fulfillment, just so that I could be able to mentally focus on other things."

The surgery, he says, was a "necessity" — and not a punchline. "I don't think anyone has the right to judge," Trinh says. "It's no different from wanting to work hard to improve yourself just as much as if you were wanting to go to the gym."