The Boy With The World's Biggest Hands

Kaleem was born with a condition which caused his hands and arms to keep on growing, until they looked like giant's hands, and weighed a colossal two stone between them.

Kaleem's parents, who earn less than £15 a month, could not afford to pay for doctors, but managed to take Kaleem to a local village hospital which was not able to diagnose him.

Living in one of India's most impoverished parts, Kaleem's huge hands led superstitious villagers to believe he was cursed. The 8-year-old was bullied, called a 'devil's child' and even refused admission to school. 

"The school teachers said they could not take Kaleem. They said his huge hands will scare other kids. So he was denied admission," said Mohammad Shamim, Kaleem's father. 

As Kaleem grew older, it was becoming harder for him to complete the simplest of daily chores. His huge hands made it difficult for his to wear his own clothes, eat his food, or even take a bath. 

But now after international publicity about his case, the eight-year-old has finally been helped by medical experts in south India, who diagnosed the condition macrodactyly, or localised giantism.

Kaleem's parents had almost given up on medical help and were living with what had happened to their son as 'God's will'.

But towards the end of last year, the Mohammad family were introduced to Dr Raja Sabapathy - a pioneering hand surgeon who is known for his expertise in micro surgery. Dr Sabapathy took on the challenge to help improve Kaleem's hands. 

"Dr Sabapathy gave us hope after seeing Kaleem. He was the first doctor who told us that some sort of remedy was possible to help our son," said Haleema Begum, Kaleem's mother. 

A new documentary follows the family as they travel thousands of miles from their village to Tamil Nadu, to see Dr Sabapathy and his team of expert surgeons at Ganga Hospital, Combiatore.

In one of the most complex cases ever seen, Dr Sabapathy and his team were faced with finding a way to reduce the size of Kaleem's hands and fingers, without damaging any of his nerves, so that he would still be able to use them.

"We decided to go for just one hand to begin with. This was our best way to assess the condition," said Dr Sabapathy. "At the same time, we did not want to affect the boy's mobility."

The film follows the family as Kaleem faces an eight hour surgery to debulk his forearm and hand, and further surgeries to reduce the growth plates so that his hand and fingers would not grow any further.

But in the family's home village, superstitious residents remained convinced Kaleem had been cursed and that surgery would be useless.

But in their village, Shamim and Haleema were faced with the challenge of overcoming negative reactions of family and neighbours so that Kaleem could settle back into normal life . 

Amanullah Khan, a village elder, said: "It seems that a solution is possible. Here in the village, we thought that the boy was cursed by God. But we think there is a change of fortunes now and the boy might have a better future." 

Shamim is now optimistic that his son will finally be able to have a normal schooling.

Mohammad Sabir, the local school headmaster, said: "We know Kaleem. He had tried to take admission in the school, but for certain reasons we could not accommodate him. We've now had news that he is being treated.

"With improvement in his hand, we feel that he can begin classes. We are also instructing our schoolchildren to not bully Kaleem."

*The Boy With the World's Biggest Hands is on Tuesday, August 11th, 9pm on Channel 5.'