Curious affliction: Dede, dubbed "Tree Man", prior to treatment with vitamin A and surgery to remove the wary growths.
Credit: AFP/Discovery Channel
JAKARTA: An Indonesian villager dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts on his body returned home Monday after doctors removed six kilograms of the growths.
Dede, a 37-year-old from rural West Java, was taken home from Bandung city after nine months of operations to remove the woody growths that had smothered his hands and feet, local doctor Rahmat Winata said.
Dede said he hoped to return to normal life and find a new wife after decades burdened by the root-like growths, which had left him unable to move and work except in a travelling 'freak show'. "Now I can live with my children... I can move and go anywhere," he said via telephone from his village. "I haven't got any plans to get married yet, but I would like to."
Immune disorder
Dede had lived alone in the village after his wife left him and his teenage children went to stay with relatives because he could no longer care for them. He said he had not yet talked to his ex-wife and did not know what he would do for work now that he was once again able to freely move his limbs.
His massive warts, which began growing out of control when he was still a teenager, were diagnosed last year by a U.S. dermatologist. Anthony Gaspari, from the University of Maryland, found the condition was a result of a combination of the human papilloma virus and a genetic disorder that means his immune system is too weak to fight them off (see, 'Tree Man' barred from treatment in U.S., Cosmos Online).
He will return to hospital at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in October for at least one more operation – the ninth – to remove the remaining 300 g of the growths, doctor Winata said.
Dede has been given a strong course of medicine, including vitamin A, in an attempt to prevent the return of the growths, Winata said.
so happy
wow i am so happy for him good luck with everthing
god bless him
i am happy for him! thank god and the doctors that help him! and he will find somegood lady that will be with him i know theres always someone that will give him the love he deserve! good luck, and god bless him and family!!and god bless the doctor or doctors that did the surgery!
Too Happy
I am really happy for him. Since few days I have been reading about him a lot. Sometimes I wonder why anyone can get such type of oddity. I am happy at last he got cured.
i herd
i herd that its is growing back and he will have to go and get an outher couple of surgys on his hands and feet
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