He’s ready for a normal life again.
Abul Bajandar, a Banglaedshi father nicknamed “Tree Man” for his massive, bark-like warts on his hands and feet, will have surgery to remove the growths that began appearing 10 years ago, officials at a hospital in Bangladesh’s capital said.
The 26-year-old, who worked as a rickshaw driver, appeared Sunday at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and underwent preparations for the surgery.
“Initially, I thought that they’re harmless,” he told AFP. “But slowly I lost all my ability to work. There are now dozens of two-to-three-inch roots in both my hands. And there are some small ones in my legs.”
The massive warts started appearing when Bajandar was a teen. He says he tried cutting them off, but it was extremely painful.
He also pursued treatment in India, but the operation was too expensive.
The warts — which began spreading rapidly four years ago — were diagnosed as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic skin disease that makes the person vulnerable to warts.
“Popularly it is known as tree-man disease,” DMCH director Samanta Lal Sen told AFP. “As far as we know there are three such cases in the world including Abul Bajandar. It is the first time we have found such a rare case in Bangladesh.”
A team of doctors will perform the operation — and the costs of the treatment are being waived, AFP reports.
Experts are testing to make sure the growths can be removed without damaging major nerves or causing additional health problems.
