Doctors bent on full cure of 'tree man'

The medical team treating Bangladesh's first "tree man" Abul Bajandar has performed the 23rd surgery on him as warts partially regrew on his left hand.
Not only have the physicians continued operating on the 27-year-old man, but they are also considering giving him a job at Dhaka Medical College Hospital so they could always keep him under observation till he fully recovers.
After the 22nd surgery on March 21, the bark-like warts were almost gone from the hands and feet of Bajandar, but they started returning in mid-May.
Last month a lab test result from the USA said his warts would likely reappear but it also gave the hint of a full cure.
Doctor Samanta Lal Sen, national coordinator at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said the nine-member medical board formed to treat Bajandar performed the latest surgery a few days before Eid-ul-Fitr.
He said his treatment, which is supported by the government and free of cost, would take more time, maybe years.
“But we are trying to give him a job at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, and rehabilitate him since he needs to be under observation,” said Dr Sen.
Quoting the US lab report, he said with further surgeries, there was a good chance that the warts would not show up again and Bajandar would be fully cured.
Bajandar has been staying in a cabin at the burn unit of DMCH since he was admitted in January last year with the condition. His wife and daughter also stay with him.
“I was upset when the warts started to re-grow but the doctor said further operations will cure me completely, so I did not lose hope. I will do anything whatever it takes to get back to my normal life,” said Bajandar.
After the string of surgeries, he hopes he would go back to his village in Khulna and start a new life.
Chief of the burn unit Prof Abul Kalam said they were providing costly medicines to Bajandar, so the disease did not return.
He said the US lab report predicted that his warts would likely reappear, but it also hinted that it was possible to cure him with proper treatment.
Halima Khatun, wife of Bajandar, said, “I want my husband to smile and see him play with our three-year-old daughter Tahira.”
Talking about the funding of the treatment, Dr Sen said the total treatment costs till date, including of the surgeries, medicines, and hospital admission, would add up to nearly Tk 50 lakh in the last one and a half years.
Bajandar was having malnutrition, anaemia, and jaundice when he was admitted to the hospital on January 30 last year. But now, his health has improved a lot although a nine-member medical board has been operating on him, said Dr Sen.
Bajandar is suffering from epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV), a rare skin disorder commonly known as the "tree person" illness, which covers limbs with warts, making them look like tree branches. He is believed to be the fourth man in the world to have this condition.
The warts began to appear on Bajandar's limbs when he was 15. After he married in 2011, those grew so big that he could not even move the hands and legs. So he had to quit his profession as a rickshaw-van driver.
Bajandar's case made international headlines.
According to DermNet New Zealand, a charity run by expert dermatologists and other health specialists, till date no cure of the condition has been found.
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