Jacob Barnes didn’t even bat an eyelash when he first noticed that all of his friends had already started going through puberty.
At just 12-years-old, Jacob, from Ohio, was assured by his parents and doctors that he was merely a late bloomer.
It wasn’t until he turned 16—still no puberty in sight—that Jacob began to grow concerned over his clear lack of growth.
Jacob was just 5’2” and 146 pounds by the time he finally went to see a specialist at 17, after his physician began to worry about the teen’s intense migraines.
An MRI scan of the teen’s brain finally revealed the shocking truth: Jacob had a craniopharyngioma, an aggressive tumor that grows from the stalk of the pituitary gland.
The pituitary gland, which sits at the base of the brain produces all the hormones necessary for an individual to begin puberty.
Although the doctor didn’t know then whether the tumor was benign or cancerous, he knew Jacob needed to have it removed immediately.
In February 2012, Jacob went in for surgery to have the tumor, which turned out to be benign, removed once and for all.
According to The Daily Mail, as Jacob began to recover from the 10-hour surgery, he started to grow at an unbelievable rate.
An endocrinologist also prescribed Jacob hormones, but warned that he would probably only grow about five or six inches total.
But medical experts were floored just one year later when Jacob shot up to 6’1” and 242 pounds.
“My classmates just couldn’t believe that they saw me growing so quickly,” Jacob, now 21, told The Daily Mail.
While Jacob still takes hormones and goes in for regular MRI scans, he’s now enjoying life as a computer science student at the University of Findlay in Ohio.
“I can’t imagine now what it would be like going through college looking like a little kid,” he said. “I’m so happy and grateful that I’ve had everything done.”
