There is no limit to the imagination of artists and directors: in art you can find many bizarre images. Catwoman, Spiderman, the children of the forest from the saga of George Martin … However, sometimes reality is much more amazing than fiction. In a remote Indonesian village, there lived a tree-man, who got his nickname for strange growths on his skin that resembled branches covered with thick bark. And the story of this man is no less amazing than popular fantastic works. What is a terrible disease? The tree-man is one of the most mysterious patients in the history of medicine and will be discussed in this article.
Dede Kosvara: the man who turned into a tree
The Indonesian, who became famous all over the world due to his rare disease, was called Dede Koswara. His body was covered with frightening growths resembling tree bark. These neoplasms grew at an astonishing rate: up to five centimeters per year.
Dede's story began when he was only 10 years old. Once, while walking in the forest, the boy badly injured his knee: it would seeman ordinary, unremarkable injury that could be forgotten. But, unfortunately, after this incident, frightening neoplasms appeared on Dede's body. The hands and feet of the Indonesian were especially hard hit. No one could defeat a terrible disease: by the age of 25, a tree-man could no longer go fishing and provide for the life of his family. The wife left Dede, taking two children. The only way to earn a living for the unfortunate was the humiliating demonstration of his body in the circus arena …
World fame
In 2007, the Discovery Channel made a documentary about Dede's unique case. The story of the tree-man struck American doctors: Dr. Gaspari from the University of Maryland decided to study this medical incident.
Scientist discovered that Dede disease is caused by the human papillomavirus. Dr. Gaspari's patient had a rare mutation that prevents the immune system from stopping the spread of the virus. It was for this reason that huge tree-like growths began to form on the body. A similar condition in medicine is called Lewandowski-Lutz epidermodysplasia. Dede Kosvara's disease is one of the rarest in the world: a similar defect has been registered in only two hundred people.
What is papilloma virus?
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a whole group of viruses that cause warts and papillomas. More than 100 types of papillomaviruses have been identified, of which 80 can infect humans. According to statistics from the World He alth Organization, about70% of the world's population are carriers of HPV. At the same time, quite often the virus does not manifest itself in any way, and the person is its distributor. HPV can be activated if the carrier's immunity is weakened for some reason. In this case, the virus enters the epithelial cells, causing them to grow. This is manifested in the appearance of warts and papillomas.
The virus enters the body through wounds and cuts, usually in childhood. Answering the question of what a tree-man is - a disease or a mutation, the doctors came to an unambiguous decision: this is a combination of exposure to HPV skin cells and a rare inherited immune defect.
Treatment
American doctors came to the conclusion that it is impossible to completely cure the "tree-man" disease, because it is not possible to change Dede's genes. However, there was a chance to return the Indonesian to normal life through a series of surgical operations. Dede went to America, where about six kilograms of tumors were removed from him in nine months. At the same time, a rather expensive therapy was carried out, the purpose of which was to strengthen the patient's immunity and suppress the spread of the human papillomavirus. However, after some time, chemotherapy had to be stopped: the patient's liver could not cope with sufficiently aggressive drugs. In addition, the treatment was stopped ahead of schedule due to the fact that Dr. Gaspari had numerous conflicts with Indonesian officials.
The efforts of doctors brought theirresults: after returning from America, Dede was able to use his hands, eat on his own and even use a mobile phone. In numerous interviews, Kosvara said that he dreams of returning to a normal life, working and even starting a family.
World famous
After the film about the tree man was seen by the audience, Dede gained worldwide popularity. Many were interested in how the tree-man lives, and some were so touched by his story that they sent money to the man. Thanks to this financial assistance, Dede was able to fulfill his dream of buying a plot of land and a car.
However, the Indonesian had a long way to a normal life, because his condition was quite serious: the warts continued to grow, in addition, doctors in Indonesia could not give him a correct diagnosis for too long, which means that invaluable time was lost … Disease " tree-man" continued to progress…
Is a cure possible?
Doctors believed that Dede's condition could be significantly improved by a bone marrow transplant: unfortunately, this operation is not possible in Indonesia, and the government prevented Dede from traveling abroad. For what reasons? Everything is very simple: officials were afraid that such a "valuable" patient could be used by the Americans as an object of research … After all, a tree-man, whose disease is quite rare, can be of great interest to science, which means that he should remain onhome.
Unfortunately, Dede's story does not have a happy ending. On January 30, 2016, the tree-man, whose illness continued to progress, passed away in one of the Indonesian hospitals. His tumors continued to grow: Dede had to undergo two surgeries a year so that the growths would not interfere with his life. However, all efforts were in vain.
Indonesian doctors who tried to save Dede admitted in an interview that the man, who has bark and tree branches instead of skin, resigned himself to his illness and its inevitable outcome, tired of the endless operations and constant insults that accompanied him throughout most of life.
According to the sister of the unfortunate man, in recent years he was not able to feed himself and did not even talk, because he was too weak.
What caused the death of the tree man?
Kosvara's death was caused by numerous complications of surgery, including hepatitis and problems with the gastrointestinal tract.
Dede dreamed that someday a cure for his terrible disease would be found. Paradoxically, the tree man wanted to become a carpenter. Unfortunately, Dede Kosvara's dreams did not come true: the doctors failed to defeat the terrible disease.
The Tree Man was only 42 at the time of his death.
