Half Man Half Tree

Unpossible

Blowfish wrote:

Is it wrong that I found that funny?

It made me suspect the whole thing is a fake

TPD

Hill Billy made this thread about 5 times funnier. 'Time for you to leave', classic.

RoyalMarine

i dont think anything will spruce his life up.
although he's probably poplar in his small village.
needles to say, i still feel bad for him.
did the doctor's say if he'll get sycamore?

and last but not least, run forest run.

biko

Thursday at 9 on discovery there's a documentary about this man. Or was it the Thursday after that? Anyway...

SuprSi

Depeche_Mode wrote: »

In other words it could be passed down the family tree.

Hopefully doctors will get to the root of the problem.

Hehe brilliant

kev_s88

i just burst out laughing in the middle of my office..... i feel like a complete and utter twat now!!!

hopefully the disease wont branch off to anyone else and that they will be able to nip it in the bud

The Hill Billy

kev_s88 wrote: »

hopefully the disease wont branch off to anyone else and that they will be able to nip it in the bud

I don't think so. It looks like he's lumbered with it. All he can do is sit there in his hut & pine away. What a beech!

Romo

Both Dede and the Romanian man, Ion Toader have a condition known as Epidermodysplasia Verruciformis. Essentially, they have no resistance to the wart virus. Their warts are so bad that cutaneous horns grow out of them. Its a very rare disease and is usually found in remote villages-some people think that generations of inter-breeding among a small population is the reason for the condition.

Ion Toader has started to recieve treatment and the results, so far, have been very encouraging. As you can see from the pictures, the first part involved the removal of the horns with a dermal saw. He then had an operation where the remaining growths on his right hand were cut away and skin from his leg was grafted. Ion's Doctor believes that with four or five more operations he can get him back to near normal.

There are also new drugs known as 'interferons' which encourage the body to produce resistance to the wart virus. So there may be some hope for Dede.

Romo

A few more pictures of Ion. The first few were taken at the start of this year, before he had any medical treatment. The next set of pictures show his hands after the cutaneous horns had been sawn off and the final pictures show Ion after his first operation during the Summer.

I know that he had a second operation in September, but i don't have pictures of that yet.

The Hill Billy

Why wooden yew just leave this alone?

sebastianlieken

Hill Billy wrote: »

Why wooden yew just leave this alone?

tree hugger

Romo

Here's some video footage of Dede. One of the top dermatologists in America has become involved in the case. Dr Gaspari believes that he can be largely cured. Hopefully, Dede has started on the long road to recovery.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=MLYGYKBGOGQ2DQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/11/12/wtree112.xml

Romo

Just for the record, I don't think this is some huge joke. I think that a lot of people on this forum who are mocking these misfortunate people, would be on their knees praying to God for a cure if their children had this condition. Post-
Catholic/Protestant or not.

RoyalMarine

did anyone see the program on tonight about this? pretty amazing.

BigEejit

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

did anyone see the program on tonight about this? pretty amazing.

Bah, I wanted to watch it but wifey freaked

sebastianlieken

ya, cant blame ur wife for gettin freaked...tbh, couldnt watch the whole thing either

Gun_Slinger

Yea, seen this last night and must say felt very sorry for Dede. It was hard to watch at times.
He seems like a proud man but is stricken by this terrible affliction and is forced to appear in a freak show type of thing to earn any money for his family. It was very hard to watch him and the others of the "clan" do their performance. You could easily see the suffering in his eyes especially when he was doing the jeep pulling stunt.
On a side point wasn't it really weird the amount of people with amazingly severe deformaties in such a localised area (kind of like Roscommon )?
Concluded where his doctor was fairly sure he had a medicine that would almost completely cure his warts but Dede was still working for the circus/freak show (whatever it was) and it wasn't clear if he was going to take the offer up.
Count our blessings lads! I'm gettin the stanley knife to the small wart on me finger tonight!

sebastianlieken

Gun_Slinger wrote: »

Count our blessings lads! I'm gettin the stanley knife to the small wart on me finger tonight!

aw thanks for that, really beautiful image there..

RuailleBuaille

I watched the show but missed the last 5 minutes. Can anyone tell me why Dede refused the medication? You guys are getting such mileage out of this and you havn't even seen Bubble Man, The Nose or the Lady, his 'colleagues' in the freak show. Holy ****, how can you have so many fcuked up people in the one area?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

what was the name of the program?

RoyalMarine

was he not treebeard in lotr?

WindSock

Dragan wrote: »

Your clearly a pesimistic person....look at the positive side....he can grow fruit and provide food for his village,

Romo

Here's some more footage of Dede and the clan that he performs with. Its difficult to watch but there is hope as Dr Gaspari believes it may be possible to treat Dede.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22848314-1702,00.html

Stark

He thinks he has problems. I had just sat down to dinner before watching that.

Romo

The really horrible thing is that, unlike his friends, this isn't a congenital disorder, a biological act of god. Rather, a viral infection. When I was a child I had warts, like 90% of the people on this board. But, I/we fought them off. If our immune system hadn't kicked in, we would have ended up like Dede.

That's what so horrific.

Stark

Thank god for liquid nitrogen.

Romo

Ion's treatment is nearing a successful conclusion. These pictures were taken earlier this month and as you can see, his warts are in complete retreat. Hopefully, Ion will now be able to lead a normal life. It also gives hope for Dede in Indonesia.

Toto Wolfcastle

I hate watching shows like half man half tree because we never find out what happened to them.

I thought the man with no face was worse to be honest!

Romo

janeybabe wrote: »

I hate watching shows like half man half tree because we never find out what happened to them.

I thought the man with no face was worse to be honest!

The president of Indonesia apparently requested to see the documentary, after his health minister accused Dr. Gaspari of stealing Dede's blood sample so that the US could make biological weapons.

After he watched the documentary, he was so shocked that he formed a team of top doctors to work on Dede's condition and ordered his health minister to extend every courtesy to Dr. Gaspari in his research. Needless to say, the health minister did an immediate 180.

The picture below shows Dede from late last month after they had removed the warts from his face.

Toto Wolfcastle

Romo wrote: »

The president of Indonesia apparently requested to see the documentary, after his health minister accused Dr. Gaspari of stealing Dede's blood sample so that the US could make biological weapons.

After he watched the documentary, he was so shocked that he formed a team of top doctors to work on Dede's condition and ordered his health minister to extend every courtesy to Dr. Gaspari in his research. Needless to say, the health minister did an immediate 180.

The picture below shows Dede from late last month after they had removed the warts from his face.

Cheers! It annoys me when programmes like that finish with no proper outcome. (Even though there might not have been one yet!)