"Tree Man" regains use of his hands after 16 surgeries

"Tree man" gets his hands back

A Bangladeshi father nicknamed tree man for the giant bark-like warts on his feet and hands has transformed after undergoing 16 surgeries in the last year.

Abul Bajandar initially thought the tree-like growths were harmless when he first spotted them sprouting up on his limbs 10 years ago, but they proved to be debilitating, causing him immense pain and the eventual loss of his job as a rickshaw driver.

The 27-year-old father and husband lived with the rare condition for years before beginning surgery to remove the bark last February.

More than a dozen procedures later, Bajandar has regained the use of his hands and is scheduled to undergo several more surgeries before he is released from the hospital, CNN reported. Hes slated to head home for the first time in the next couple weeks after living in a hospital for nearly a year.

I feel so much better, Bajandar told AFP. I can hold my daughter in my lap and play with her.

Bajandar is in very good shape and can now eat and write using his own hands, Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, chief plastic surgeon at Dhaka Medical College Hospital told the news station, adding that the remaining surgeries are more for beautification.

If the surgeries are successful in preventing the growths from returning, Bajandar would be the first person known to be cured of epidermodysplasia verruciformis an extremely rare genetic disease that makes a person more susceptible to warts. He is reportedly one of only four people in the world to be diagnosed with the condition, more popularly known as tree-man disease.

Since first receiving treatment for the condition, which doctors believe is caused by a defect in the immune system, hes shed nearly 11 pounds of warts.

My hands were so heavy before, I struggled to move around, he told CNN. Now those problems are not occurring any more.

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Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/tree-man-regains-hands-16-surgeries-article-1.2942556