A man dubbed the ‘tree man’ who lives in Bangladesh, by the name of Abul Bajandar, is set to have life-changing surgery on his hands and feet after having to live with enormous growth-like warts on his hands for most of his life.
Mr Bajandar, who lives in the southern district of Khulna, is set to have the surgery to remove these warts that represent bark later this year. The surgery will remove over 5kg of warts from his hands that have plagued him for most of his life.
“Initially, I thought that they’re harmless,” the 26-year-old told AFP at the Dhaka medical college hospital. “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,” said Bajandar who was forced to quit working as a bicycle-puller.
The warts began to grow when Abul was just a teenager, however their speed of growth has grown far more rapid over the past few years as he tried local herbal remedies and cutting them to try and remove them.
The disease is actually known as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic skin disease that makes the person susceptible to skin growths. To most people it is known as “tree-man disease” due to the type of growth that it leaves looking similar to that of bark or even sometimes stalks of plants.
The disease and surgery have made Abul quite the local celebrity and he remarks that he’s had over 100 people come and visit him over the past month and wish him well in his surgery and ask him questions about his disease.
Back in 2008, an Indonesian Villager who had the disease all over his body went through the surgery successfully and had the warts removed and has gone on to live a more normal life than before.
We duly hope the best for Mr Abul Bajandar and hope that the surgery goes smoothly and safely so he can get on with his life and even go back to his old job!
