A Bangladeshi man has been mocked and labelled as 'The Tree Man' due to agonising and painful bark-like warts that had covered his hands and feet – their growth recurring, despite having them removed via 16 operations just last year.
Abul Bajandar, 27, underwent multiple surgeries to remove the 11lb growth on his hands that had left him unable to even hold his daughter. The rickshaw driver's condition is known as epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV).
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Last year, luckily for him, doctors seemed to have successfully treated the extremely rare condition – once and for all, Daily Mail Online reported. An overjoyed Abul had expressed his relief, saying, "I hope the curse won't return again."
Yet, new images revealed that the growths have appeared on his hands – something that rules out the doctors' hopes that they were able to have successfully cured the first-ever EV sufferer.
Abul – who was previously forced to quit working due to the excruciatingly painful condition, has once again been left anxious about his daughter's future, as it is yet again unclear if he'll ever be able to work ever again, given the situation of his disorder.
Being one of the just four diagnosed cases of EV worldwide, Abul had previously described the pain from the bark-like protruding to be 'unbearable'. His surgeon, Samanta Lal Sen, from Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said the removal surgery was 'a remarkable milestone in the history of medical science'.
The first time around, when Abul had to spend 30 days in the hospital, post his operation, he had said: "I can hold my daughter in my lap and play with her. I can't wait to go back home." He had met his wife Halima Khatun before he had contracted the disease. The two had married, much against her parents' wishes, after the disease had shown itself.
Abul, who was described by the doctors as the 'most loved' patient in the hospital, had initially mistaken the warts to be harmless until they grew all over his hands and feet, forcing him to quit working.
The man also had plans to set up a small business with the money donated from his well-wishers all over the world. He added: "I was so worried about raising my daughter. I hope the curse won't return again."
