Bark-Like Skin Getting Better on 'Tree Man'

Jakarta, INDONESIA, Aug. 12, 2008 — -- Dede Koswara, known in his native Indonesia as "Tree Man," has lived for years with rapidly spreading warts that have covered his entire body in a case that has baffled doctors.

The 37-year-old has been undergoing a radical transformation at a tropical hospital in Bandung and in the time it takes to conceive and give birth to new life, a team of local doctors have performed eight major operations involving an electric saw, skin grafting and the removal of pounds of dead skin tissue hardened by the years.

Dede, a father of two who goes by his first name, is expected to return home to his remote village at the end of this month. His parents, siblings and children have been visiting him regularly at the hospital.

"The surgery of Dede is not perfect, but the results meet what we hoped or expected," said Dr. Hardisiswo Soedjana, a leading plastic surgeon in Indonesia and the head doctor in Dede's case.

In the coming months, Dede will return to Hasan Sadikin hospital for at least two more major surgeries. Doctors will continue to work on his immune system and find ways to cope with the challenges of excessive bleeding during operations, the deep growth of his warts and the search for more skin donors.

It wasn't until Dede was a teenager that what started as a simple wart on his knee spiraled his life out of control. They started spreading over his entire body as a result of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

It is a common virus that approximately 20 million Americans live with, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some without even knowing it.

"The wart gets into your skin and makes the skin grow out of control," said dermatologist Dr. Debra Jaliman. "It grows above the skin. It grows into the skin."

However in Dede's case, the warts had run wild, creating a medical mystery for doctors.