Washington: Igor Vovkovinskiy, who was known for being the tallest man in the United States, has died at the age of 38. Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy, who stood 7 feet 8 inches (2.35 meters) tall, died of a heart problem, confirmed his mother on Facebook. As per reports, Vovkovinskiy had a condition called pituitary gigantism that caused excessive secretion of growth hormone. Taking to Facebook, his mother Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo Clinic wrote a heartfelt post about her son’s death.
She wrote, “Igor Vovkovinskiy died on August 20 at 22:17 pm in hospital from heart disease. He and his older brother Oleh were with him until the end. His last dinner was: a piece of Kyiv cake and Fanta. A few hours before his death, he was accompanied by Oleh’s wife Alla and children. Igor was glad to see them, and although it was difficult for him to speak, he tried to joke about his nephew Andriy, whether he had learned the Ukrainian language in a month in Ukraine.”
Reports stated that his mother had brought him from their home in Ukraine in 1989 to get medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the northern US state and after two surgeries his life was saved but the surgeries failed to stop his growth. And, at age 27, Guinness World Records declared Vovkovinskiy the tallest person in America.
Vovkovinskiy was born September 8, 1982, in Bar, Ukraine, to Vovkovinska and Oleksandr Ladan, according to Ranfranz and Vine Funeral Home, which is holding a memorial service on Saturday. His father died earlier.