The Chinese get all procrustean on themselves:
Dr. Xia charges $6,000 to $7,000 to add up to six inches of height, depending on the patient’s ideal proportions. The initial operation, in which he severs the thighbone or shinbone through two small incisions in the skin, takes about an hour and a half. He then attaches his own version of a metal fixation device with pins that pierce the skin and are screwed into the bone above and below the break.
Patients turn white plastic dials on the contraptions four times a day to winch their broken bones apart. It takes 15 days to grow one centimeter, or less than half an inch, of new bone. The patients spend an average of six months in the device and three more in recovery.
Which lends considerable support to my brand-new theory that the Chinese are crazy.
(* the article linked above, and another I found, are a little old, but this was featured on some TV News programs yesterday)