<p>Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38.</p>.<p>His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his death on Facebook.</p>.<p>Vovkovinskiy came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child seeking treatment. A tumour pressing against his pituitary gland caused it to secrete abnormal levels of growth hormone.</p>.<p>He grew to become the tallest man in the US at 7 feet, 8.33 inches (2 meters, 34.5 centimeters) and ended up staying in Rochester.</p>.<p>His older brother, Oleh Ladan of Brooklyn Park, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that Vovkovinskiy was a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine because of his size and the flickering Cold War of the late 1980s. But Ladan said Vovkovinskiy “would have rather lived a normal life than be known.”</p>.<p>Vovkovinskiy appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and was called out by President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in 2009, when the president noticed him near the stage wearing a T-shirt that read, “World's Biggest Obama Supporter.” In 2013, he carried the Ukrainian contestant onto the stage to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest.</p>.<p>When he was 27, Vovkovinskiy traveled to New York City and was declared America's tallest living person by a Guinness World Records adjudicator on Oz's show. He edged out a sheriff's deputy in Virginia by one-third of an inch.</p>.<p>He issued a plea in 2012 to cover the estimated USD 16,000 cost for specially made shoes that wouldn't cause him crippling pain. At the time, he said he hadn't owned a pair for years that fit his size 26, 10E feet. Thousands donated more than double what he needed. Reebok provided the custom shoes for free.</p>.<p>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.</p>
<p>Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38.</p>.<p>His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his death on Facebook.</p>.<p>Vovkovinskiy came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child seeking treatment. A tumour pressing against his pituitary gland caused it to secrete abnormal levels of growth hormone.</p>.<p>He grew to become the tallest man in the US at 7 feet, 8.33 inches (2 meters, 34.5 centimeters) and ended up staying in Rochester.</p>.<p>His older brother, Oleh Ladan of Brooklyn Park, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that Vovkovinskiy was a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine because of his size and the flickering Cold War of the late 1980s. But Ladan said Vovkovinskiy “would have rather lived a normal life than be known.”</p>.<p>Vovkovinskiy appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and was called out by President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in 2009, when the president noticed him near the stage wearing a T-shirt that read, “World's Biggest Obama Supporter.” In 2013, he carried the Ukrainian contestant onto the stage to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest.</p>.<p>When he was 27, Vovkovinskiy traveled to New York City and was declared America's tallest living person by a Guinness World Records adjudicator on Oz's show. He edged out a sheriff's deputy in Virginia by one-third of an inch.</p>.<p>He issued a plea in 2012 to cover the estimated USD 16,000 cost for specially made shoes that wouldn't cause him crippling pain. At the time, he said he hadn't owned a pair for years that fit his size 26, 10E feet. Thousands donated more than double what he needed. Reebok provided the custom shoes for free.</p>.<p>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.</p>