'Tree-Man Syndrome': Doctors hopeful after Shahana’s surgery

After conducting a surgery on Shahana Khatun, possibly the country's first woman with “tree-man syndrome”, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) doctors today are hoping for a success.

They successfully conducted the operation on Shahana from 12:30pm to 2:00pm at DMCH the burn unit, Samanta Lal Sen, national coordinator of the burn services in Bangladesh, told The Daily Star.

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She may not need the second operation, Samanta Lal said.

Earlier, doctors said that a second surgery might be needed on her.

Headed by burn and plastic surgery unit chief Abul Kalam Azad, a six-member medical board are treating Shahana completely free of cost.

Daughter of a poor farmer in Netrokona, Shahana got prickly rashes on her face when she was only a year old. When she turned six, those began to grow and spread raising the alarm.

Two years later, rashes began to grow over her ears and right leg knee. Frantically, her father took her to a homeopathic doctor whose prescribed medicines she had for a month, but nothing changed.

Learning that, treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital would be free of cost, the poor father came to Dhaka along with the girl.