Dede Koswara, known in his native Indonesia as "Tree Man," has lived for years with rapidly spreading warts that have covered his entire body in a case that has baffled doctors.
The 37-year-old has been undergoing a radical transformation at a tropical hospital in Bandung and in the time it takes to conceive and give birth to new life, a team of local doctors have performed eight major operations involving an electric saw, skin grafting and the removal of pounds of dead skin tissue hardened by the years.
Dede, a father of two who goes by his first name, is expected to return home to his remote village at the end of this month. His parents, siblings and children have been visiting him regularly at the hospital.
"The surgery of Dede is not perfect, but the results meet what we hoped or expected," said Dr. Hardisiswo Soedjana, a leading plastic surgeon in Indonesia and the head doctor in Dede's case.
In the coming months, Dede will return to Hasan Sadikin hospital for at least two more major surgeries. Doctors will continue to work on his immune system and find ways to cope with the challenges of excessive bleeding during operations, the deep growth of his warts and the search for more skin donors.
It wasn't until Dede was a teenager that what started as a simple wart on his knee spiraled his life out of control. They started spreading over his entire body as a result of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Common Disease With Uncommon Results
It is a common virus that approximately 20 million Americans live with, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some without even knowing it.
"The wart gets into your skin and makes the skin grow out of control," said dermatologist Dr. Debra Jaliman. "It grows above the skin. It grows into the skin."
However in Dede's case, the warts had run wild, creating a medical mystery for doctors.
"Some people don't do well with the treatments because their immune system isn't that good at fighting the virus," Jaliman said.
At left, Dede in 2007 gnarled growths sprouting from his hands and feet,
sits in front of his house in the village of Tanjung Jaya in Indonesia.
At right, Dede's condition has improved in 2008 after undergoing
several surgeries to remove the bark-like growths from his skin (Reuter/ABC)
Doctors diagnosed Dede as having an immune deficiency. It was, in a way, a "perfect storm" of dermatology. The combination of the incredibly common HPV and his incredibly rare immune deficiency caused Dede's warts to form growths that resembled tree bark and roots -- growths that eventually took over control of his body.
Soon Dede lost the ability to perform daily functions, or even hold his children, because of the weight of his hands and feet.
Becoming 'Tree Man'
He lost his job and left his village to earn a living the only way he knew how -- begging on the city streets.
It was there that he met Hanny of Hanny Enterprise, an organization that hosts the most sensational carnival-like shows in the country. Dede became a rising star, known as Tree Man.
Ironically, Hanny's success at building Dede's fame as Tree Man may have lead to his medical treatments.
Doctors became as curious as the public and the media were about his condition.
American doctor Anthony Gaspari is part of the team that set a plan in motion to treat Dede to "control the tumorous growths and to restore his immune system," he said at an earlier news conference.
"We have a lot of room to improve the patient's condition and improve the quality of his life, improve his appearance, improve his ability to use his hands," Gaspari said.
Hospital staff today say Dede is in good spirits, has put on healthy weight and is happy to be returning home.
Though it's unlikely that Dede will ever be free of all traces of disease, his treatment will give him a chance to go back to his village, to be with his family and friends and lead a new life approaching normal.
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So the condition of Dede had gone well... I wonder how he is now? And if he's operation had really gone well. I really feel sorry for him, it seems like his indeed suffering from his situation, and having those kind of hands and feet would surely deprive him from doing things particularly his work.
I know how it feels to have a problem like that, though Dede's side is more severe compared to mine. Actually I have this kind of skin disease called 'Eczema'. According to Wikipedia, it is a disease in a form of dermatitis, or inflammation of the epidermis. The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes that are characterized by one or more of these symptoms: redness, skin edema (swelling), itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing, or bleeding. Areas of temporary skin discoloration may appear and are sometimes due to healed lesions. Scratching open a healing lesion may result in scarring. Eczema may be confused with urticaria. In contrast to psoriasis, eczema is often likely to be found on the flexor aspect of joints.
However, I really don't know which type of eczema I have. I have this since I was a child, it disappeared temporarily but when the weather is cold, my legs start to feel itchy and I can't stop but to scratch it. And then, lesions will gradually form, and it's akin to islets or scales. It's really frustrating when it heals for a brief count afterwards it will come back and it will look like the way before it was. We have tried a lot of methods and ointments to lather on it, nonetheless none of them take the best effect. We had even gone to a dermatologist, but my mistake was to refuse to some of her prescriptions, for it appears to be just a waste of money for me, disregarding my own sake, and also due to my frugality . I was really remorseful back then when I took no notice of what is to be done for my eczema to be well-treated. I really regret those days, wish I could turn back time. From my own experience, I could conclude that, 'No one will ever learn his lessons and be sorry for it, until the mistake was already said and done.'
Similar to what SYDNEY J. HARRIS quoted:
Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.
On the other hand, HENRY DAVID THOREAU said:
Make the most of your regrets...
to regret deeply is to live afresh.
Journal
And for PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY:
Fear not for the future,
