The fantasies of artists and directors have no limits: in art you can find many bizarre images. Catwoman, Spider-Man, children of the forest from the saga of George Martin ... However, sometimes reality is much more amazing than fiction. In a distant Indonesian village there lived a tree man, who received his nickname for strange growths on the skin, resembling branches covered with thick bark. And the story of this man is amazing just as much as popular science fiction works. What is a terrible disease? The human tree is one of the most mysterious patients in the history of medicine, and we will discuss it in this article.
Dede Cosvara: a man turned into a tree
The Indonesian, who became famous all over the world due to his rare disease, was called Dede Cosvara. Frightening growths resembling a tree bark covered his body. These neoplasms grew at an astonishing rate: up to five centimeters per year.
The story of Dede began when he was only 10 years old. Once, while walking in the woods, a boy severely injured his knee: it would seem an 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 particularly severely affected. No one could defeat a terrible disease: a tree-man by the age of 25 could no longer go fishing and provide for the life of his family. The wife left Dede, taking two children. The only way to get food for the unfortunate was a humiliating demonstration of his body in the circus arena ...
World fame
In 2007, Discovery made a documentary about Dede's unique case. The story of a man-tree struck American physicians: Dr. Gaspari from the University of Maryland decided to study this medical incident.
The scientist discovered that Dede disease is caused by the human papillomavirus. Dr. Gaspari's patient had a rare mutation that prevented the immune system from stopping the spread of the virus. It is for this reason that huge tree-like growths began to form on the body. A similar condition in medicine is called epidermodysplasia of Lewandowski-Lutz. Dede Cosvara's disease is one of the rarest in the world: only two hundred people have a similar defect.
What is papilloma virus?
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a group of viruses that cause the appearance of warts and papillomas. More than 100 types of human papillomaviruses have been isolated, of which 80 can infect humans. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, about 70% of the world's population are carriers of HPV. Moreover, quite often the virus does not manifest itself, and the person is its distributor. HPV can be activated if the immunity of the carrier is weakened for any 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, as a rule, this happens in childhood. Answering the question of what a tree-man is - a disease or a mutation, doctors came to a definite decision: this is a combination of exposure to HPV skin cells and a rare inherited immune defect.
Treatment
American doctors concluded that it is impossible to completely cure the tree-man disease, because it is not possible to change the genes of Dede. However, there was a chance to return the Indonesian to normal life through a series of surgical operations. Dede went to America, where for nine months he had removed about six kilograms of tumors. At the same time, quite 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 quite aggressive drugs. In addition, treatment was stopped ahead of schedule due to the fact that Dr. Gaspari had numerous conflicts with Indonesian officials.
The efforts of doctors brought their results: returning from America, Dede could use his hands, independently eat and even use a mobile phone. In numerous interviews, Cosvara 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 a tree-man lives, and some were so moved by his story that they sent money to a man. Thanks to this financial assistance, Dede was able to fulfill his dream and acquire a plot of land and a car.
However, the Indonesian had a long way to go to a normal life, because his condition was quite serious: the warts continued to grow, and the doctors in Indonesia could not diagnose him for too long, which meant that precious time was lost ... tree-man disease "continued to progress ...
Is a cure possible?
Doctors believed that Dede’s condition could significantly improve bone marrow transplantation: 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 must remain at home .
Unfortunately, there is no happy end story for Dede. On January 30, 2016, the tree-man, whose disease continued to progress, passed away in one of the Indonesian hospitals. His tumors continued to grow: Grandfather had to do two operations a year so that the growths would not interfere with his life. However, all efforts were in vain.
Indonesian doctors trying to save Dede, in an interview, admitted that a man who instead of the skin of a bark and a tree branch resigned himself to his illness and its inevitable outcome, tired of the endless operations and constant insults that accompanied him for most of his life.
According to the unfortunate sister, 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 a tree man?
Cosvara’s death was caused by numerous complications of previous surgeries, 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, the dreams of Dede Cosvara were not destined to come true: doctors could not defeat a terrible disease.
At the time of death, the tree man was only 42 years old.