Human ' Treeman ' begs for help as he turns into a tree

Tags: cutaneous horns + cornu cutaneum

Snipe posted on Dec 18th 2007 8:35AM

Human ' Treeman ' begs for help as he turns into a tree

An Indonesian man who suffers from a rare disease which causes tree-like growths all over his body is seeking help from American medics.

Comments

	Valmort says: Local doctors were baffled as to the growths’ cause – until Dr Anthony Gaspari, a dermatology expert at the University of Maryland in the US, heard about Dede’s plight and flew to Indonesia to investigate. advertisement Blood tests showed that the growths are caused by rampant human papilloma virus (a wart virus), but it is still a mystery as to why it is so out of control in Dede’s body. Dr Gaspari has suggested treatment with vitamin A and begun further research to understand the pathological process at play. The history of medicine is littered with examples of inquisitive individuals such as Dr Gaspari, who were spurred on by an all-consuming desire to help humanity and a dogged determination to understand and master diseases that blighted people’s lives. In the modern world, medical advances are dominated by profit margins, projected sales figures and marketability. It’s the absence of these factors that makes the story of Dede and Dr Gaspari all the more endearing. But what began as an inspirational story of one man’s desire to help another – of the application of the doctor’s expert knowledge and scientific reason to alleviate another human’s suffering – has turned into a sad parable of modern life. Now the story is about how politics impacts people’s lives; how bureaucratic concern obliterates the individual. A row has erupted because Dr Gaspari has taken Dede’s blood samples back to his laboratory in the United States in an attempt to research a cure. But Indonesia’s health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, argues that developing nations risk exploitation unless they maintain control over their virus strains. Indeed, previously she has refused to share bird flu samples with other countries in case they use them to produce expensive vaccines. Dr Gaspari, desperate to help Dede, has offered to put it in writing that the samples were not for commercial use, explaining: “We did it for humanitarian reasons, to help the patient.” With the project in jeopardy, Dede may never be cured, the mysteries of his illness remaining unsolved. It’s hard to know who to blame; a paranoid, defensive and self-interested Indonesian government, or the US, whose aggressive pursuit of wealth and power generates such fear in other nations? http://www.telegraph.co...max103.xml Posted: 12/18/07 08:50
	daniela says: this is sad please try to help this man he has children in his hands he wishes to see his grandchildren soon he has a whole life ahead of him he is too young to die try to defeat this very rare disease before it spreads to others you may never know if it is contagious help him pronto Posted: 01/26/08 18:34
	Sparkle says: I sent healing energy to him and pray that he gets help. You can see him peeking out from his ailment and it really touches the heart that he is going thru this. Posted: 04/04/08 20:30

Local doctors were baffled as to the growths’ cause – until Dr Anthony Gaspari, a dermatology expert at the University of Maryland in the US, heard about Dede’s plight and flew to Indonesia to investigate.
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Blood tests showed that the growths are caused by rampant human papilloma virus (a wart virus), but it is still a mystery as to why it is so out of control in Dede’s body. Dr Gaspari has suggested treatment with vitamin A and begun further research to understand the pathological process at play.

The history of medicine is littered with examples of inquisitive individuals such as Dr Gaspari, who were spurred on by an all-consuming desire to help humanity and a dogged determination to understand and master diseases that blighted people’s lives.

In the modern world, medical advances are dominated by profit margins, projected sales figures and marketability. It’s the absence of these factors that makes the story of Dede and Dr Gaspari all the more endearing.

But what began as an inspirational story of one man’s desire to help another – of the application of the doctor’s expert knowledge and scientific reason to alleviate another human’s suffering – has turned into a sad parable of modern life.

Now the story is about how politics impacts people’s lives; how bureaucratic concern obliterates the individual. A row has erupted because Dr Gaspari has taken Dede’s blood samples back to his laboratory in the United States in an attempt to research a cure.

But Indonesia’s health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, argues that developing nations risk exploitation unless they maintain control over their virus strains. Indeed, previously she has refused to share bird flu samples with other countries in case they use them to produce expensive vaccines.

Dr Gaspari, desperate to help Dede, has offered to put it in writing that the samples were not for commercial use, explaining: “We did it for humanitarian reasons, to help the patient.”

With the project in jeopardy, Dede may never be cured, the mysteries of his illness remaining unsolved. It’s hard to know who to blame; a paranoid, defensive and self-interested Indonesian government, or the US, whose aggressive pursuit of wealth and power generates such fear in other nations?

http://www.telegraph.co...max103.xml
Posted: 12/18/07 08:50

daniela says:

this is sad please try to help this man he has children in his hands he wishes to see his grandchildren soon he has a whole life ahead of him he is too young to die try to defeat this very rare disease before it spreads to others you may never know if it is contagious

help him pronto
Posted: 01/26/08 18:34

Sparkle says:

I sent healing energy to him and pray that he gets help. You can see him peeking out from his ailment and it really touches the heart that he is going thru this.
Posted: 04/04/08 20:30