The Tree Man

Ever heard of the tree man? I watched the documentary yesterday on arts central, featuring the Tree Man (his name is "De De"), someone from Java (indonesia) who gotten a very very very rare, bizarre illness whereby he grew warts all over his body. and the warts grew more until they entirely covered his palms and foot, making them look like tree barks. There's no way to remove the bark like foreign growth with any nail clipper or plier or saw. It things were so simple. But fact is, there were living tissues in these foreign growth, whereby DeDe will feel pain and bleed when his closed ones tried cutting off the "tree barks" from his limbs.

The saddest thing is that because of his appearance, it was difficult for him to look for a job, and no suitable job was there for him. So the only way to survive and support his family was to perform in the circus. In one of the scene shown, a thick rope was tight on his pony tail, and with slow and steady step, he walked forward again and again, using the rope to drag the lorry, piled with children behind him. There was an explanable sadness and helplessness in his face, there was a big crowd surrounding him, some helpers were there to ensure the whole performance went off smoothly. With every walk step he took, I cried. I cried while watching the scene helplessly. I guess he felt the same way too.

Fortunately for De De, an american dermatology expert Dr Anthony Gaspari was willing to help De De find a cure. After months of research were done to his blood samples, results shown that he has an extremely rare immune system deficiency thus resulting the massive growth of warts on his skin. Operations were done to remove the exceesive growth of warts on his limbs and hopefully he will be able to lead a normal life all over again.

Besides De De, there were also other unfortunates, like the Bubble Man, who has tumor like lumps, big or small, all over his body and face, another one, who has her left side of the skin from her face hanging loosely, and another two I forgot how they look like but just like De De, they perform in circus in order to earn a living.

It suddenly hit me that everyone of us here, living with a normal face and limbs and bodies, was not something we should have by default. In fact, we should count ourselves lucky, plain lucky ones who are able to face this world with a normal looking face, where strangers will not turn and give us a second glance cos everything on our appearance, were deem normal, so normal, that no one cares to cherish everything we were born with.

To read more about "Tree Man, De De", please go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1584915/Tree-man-%27who-grew-roots%27-hopes-to-marry-after-4lb-of-warts-removed.html