'Tree man' undergoes second surgery at DMCH

A team of surgeons today removed warts from the left hand of “Tree man” Abul Bajandar in a two hours long surgery.

The team of six surgeons led by Prof Abul Kalam, head of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), conducted the surgery a month after the first surgery was done on his right hand.

“His fingers on both hands are now distinguishable. But small procedures for further refinement will continue for about a year,” he told The Daily Star.

Physicians are, however, hopeful that Abul will be able to partially use the fingers on his right hand in about three months, he added.

After the surgery was done at around 1:00pm, Samanta Lal Sen, a noted physician and coordinator of the Institute who was part of the team, said the surgery yielded positive results.

Bandages on his left hand would be removed on Tuesday for assessing the progress and dressing, he also said.

As the illness was “an inherited skin disease”, there is a high risk of relapse, Sen earlier said.

Although primary diagnosis of the warts had shown that they were not cancerous, a proper diagnosis of the nature of his illness conducted by an expert in the US would take several months, Sen added.

Bajandar, 26, has been suffering from epidermodysplasia verruciformis, a rare skin disorder commonly known as the tree man illness, which covers limbs with warts, making it look like a tree branch.

Being unable to use his limbs, Bajandar, believed to be the fourth man in the world with tree man illness, was admitted to the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery of DMCH on January 30.