SHENYANG, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- It had been two weeks since two dolphins in an ocean aquarium in northeast China had swallowed some plastic from the perimeter of their pool.

    They had fallen sick almost immediately and their condition was worsening by the day. Vets attempted to surgically remove the plastic but the contraction of the dolphins' stomachs in response to the surgical instruments rendered their task impossible.

    Stride forward the world's tallest man, 2.36-meter-high Bao Xishun, a herdsman from Inner Mongolia, to answer the pleas of aquarium staff in Fushun, Liaoning Province, who realized that the plastic could only be removed by a human hand.

    An arm of 1.06 meters was just the ticket. A dozen men held down the dolphins and the patients' upper jaws were tied with towels so they could not chomp down on Bao's giant limb. Bao reached his hand into the stomach of each dolphin and pulled out the plastic shards.

    It is still not known how the plastic pads, used to prevent skidding around the outside of the pool, fell into water to be eaten by the dolphins.

    "Some very small plastic pieces are still left in the dolphins' stomachs," said Zhu Xiaoling, a local doctor. "However the dolphins will be able to digest these and are expected to recover soon."

    Bao was confirmed as the world's tallest human being by the Guinness Book of World Records last year.

    The 54-year old Mongol, who has been living in a area of pasture near Chifeng City since his childhood, has grown to his remarkable height naturally, not as a result of a medical condition. His growth was relatively normal until the age of 16, when an inexplicable growth spurt saw him reach his record height in just seven years.