MYSTERY TODAY! DEDE KOSWARA of INDONESIA: THE TREE MAN.

What a world of mysteries!

For the purpose of those who have not read about this man, here is the story......

Dede Koswara of Indonesia was born like every other child so sweet and cute.

His hands looked like contorted, yellow-brown branches extending 3 feet. Unable to clamp his hands into a fist or pick up a fork, he made his living by performing in carnivals in rural Indonesia. He became known as the Treeman.

The story of Dede’s condition begins when he was 10 years old. Whilst out in the forest near his home on the island of Java in Indonesia, Dede cut his knee whilst out in the forest. Shortly afterwards, small warts sprouted around the wound, which eventually spread to his feet and hands.

As he grew older, his warts continued to grow. Eventually the sheer number and size of them meant that his ability to carry out his job as a tradesman suffered, and though the warts didn’t hurt or itch, they gave off a sickening odour. At 28, Dede’s wife of 10 years left him as he became unable to work to support her and their two children. 

Continue reading to see more pictures after the cut.............

Dede was severely disfigured and sent into a rural isolated village where he was sheltered from his peers. With good reason, he was a sad man. He wanted to be cured and he wanted hope."

The growths encrusting his arms accounted for nearly 12 pounds of his 100-pound body. Koswara  36, often became exhausted after taking a few steps because of the dense warts on his feet. The growths that carpeted his limbs were posing more problems.

"He was getting infected," said Gaspari, chief of dermatology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. "He had insects living in the base of the wood-like material."

Doctors believe that Koswara's case was a perfect storm, created by a genetically inherited immune defect and a type of human papillomavirus, or HPV.  "The HPV-2 virus that causes common warts is the same exact wart virus that he's infected with, except it was growing out of control," Gaspari said.

Koswara has a deficiency of white blood cells, which are crucial in fighting infections, and his weakened immune system couldn't fight the HPV. The virus hijacked his skin cells, causing it to produce massive amounts of keratin, a protein found in hair and fingernails. The warts sprouted into dense growths known medically as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet.

"I had never seen anything this severe," said Gaspari, a dermatologist for 25 years. "I shared this case with my colleagues, and no one had ever seen this before."

Earlier in his life, Koswara ought help from local doctors, who followed the prescribed treatment by removing the warts.

As Koswara aged, his condition worsened. The horns clustered on his limbs, where the body temperature is lower. They grew at a rate of 5 millimeters a month. Warts that looked like barnacles began to clump around his eyes and nose.

"I am afraid that it will cover all my face," Koswara told an Indonesian journalist. "I won't be able to see. I won't be able to eat."

The growing of the warts was not painful, Gaspari said. But the cutaneous horns were attached to the skin, and Koswara would feel pain if they were pulled or entangled.

As the growths took over his hands and feet, Koswara lost his independence, and his wife left him. He had worked in construction and fishing but could not longer work.

"He has a wonderful family," Gaspari said. "That's why he was able to survive as long as he did."Koswara's siblings and parents cared for him, feeding and cleaning him. His condition is not contagious, and his family members have not been infected with similar skin growths.

To support his two teenage children, Koswara joined a traveling performance group with people who have various skin deformities.

"I try to be a good father, but I can't give them what they need," he said in the documentary."I feel sad, because I cannot touch them."

In 2007, as word spread about Koswara's condition, he was brought into an Indonesian hospital for treatment. About 12 pounds of cutaneous horns were sawed from his hands and feet. Skin grafts were taken from his back and buttocks and placed on his forearm.

After several surgeries, Koswara has been able to walk, lift a fork and write.