"It is my dream dress for my dream wedding for my dream guy," a gushing bride-to-be tells INSIDE EDITION. Tiffanie Didonato was literally swept off her feet following her handsome U.S. Marine dropped to 1 knee and proposed.
Tiffanie, who lives outdoors of Boston, was born with a form of dwarfism called Diastrophic Dysplasia. By the time she was 8-years-old Tiffanie had stopped expanding. She was only 3' 8". Then, she made the life altering choice to have limb lengthening surgery.
The now blushing bride usually dreamed of living a normal life and obtaining married, but she wanted to stroll down the aisle standing tall. So she made the difficult decision to undergo painful limb lengthening surgeries prior to her big day.
Tiffanie began with her upper arms. "I couldn't reach the leading of my head," she says. "My arms had been too short." She pushed the limb lengthening boundaries by asking surgeon Dr. Erol Mortimer to create her 14" taller.
"She was absolutely determined," the physician says.
Explaining her decision, Tiffanie says, "I wasn't going to undergo it for three or four inches. I was going to go the max if I could...14 inches."
"It was excruciating," she says.
Following snapping the bone in two, a device is attached that literally pulls the bone apart a millimeter at a time. According to Dr. Mortimer, "Bone is really a magical tissue. It can recreate itself."
The bone heals and fills in the gap, literally creating the bone longer.
Amazingly, before stepping foot down the aisle for her dream wedding Tiffanie reached her goal of becoming 14" taller.
Measuring herself subsequent to her mom Tiffany's nonetheless awestruck that she grew from 3' 8" to 4' 10". "I'm nonetheless little, I'm petite but I'm not extremely small," she says with a glowing smile.
Tiffanie is believed to have lengthened her limbs more than anybody in the world, but the surgery is controversial.
INSIDE EDITION spoke with a young man who knows the agony Tiffanie went through because he also had limb lengthening surgery but wished he had tried
heel lifts.
Akash Shukla hated becoming extremely brief. "Being less than 5 foot for any man is difficult," he says. At 4' 11" he desperately wanted to become more than 5' tall.
Akash struggled through his rehabilitation. Nevertheless, looking at him today 1 can see the big change. Once concerning the exact same height as his mom, he now towers over her at 5' 2".
Most of all, the engineering student in the New Jersey Institute of Technologies, who's written a book, Measure of a Man, says he's more confident around girls on campus.
There's no way to measure Tiffanie's happiness, her mom Robin is overjoyed. "Every parent always wonders, but when you have someone with some issues, some problems, it is a concern. This is just a parent's dream. My daughter's very happy and she's going to become able to reside her life the way she's always wanted to reside."
Tiffanie's proud father escorted her down the aisle to her waiting hero husband. Eric Gabriels is really a decorated Marine, who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He and Tiffanie were pen pals whilst he was overseas. The young serviceman calls his bride probably the most courageous ladies he's ever met.
A Marine Honor Guard welcomed the newlyweds to their reception exactly where the couple enjoyed time with family and buddies. It is clear that Tiffanie has certainly reached new heights within the arms from the man she calls her knight in shining armor.
