text: A six-member medical board, formed yesterday to discuss Bangladeshi tree man, Abul Bajandar's treatment, decided to start a multi-stage plastic surgery on the patient's hands in about three weeks. 
   
   “The patient appears malnourished and is still too weak for immediate surgery,” said Dr Sen, a physician and coordinator of Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where Abul, suffering from the rare tree man illness, was admitted yesterday. 
   
   Abul, 26, hailing from Khulna, has tree trunk like warts, almost weighing four kilogrammes on both his hands and feet. As a result, he cannot carry out any function with his hands. 
   
   Doctors are planning surgery on his hands to bring some level of functionality, by removing extra flesh from the thumb and the index fingers. 
   
   Medical examination of the patient, including blood tests, and biopsy will start today, said Sen. 
   
   Meanwhile, many foreign doctors and researchers have taken interest in Abul's case and are contacting the DMCH. 
   
   They wish to help find a solution to the incurable skin disorder, whereby warts triggered by a virus becomes thickened and hardened into horns and branch out from the skin. 
   
   “An American doctor emailed us today asking for blood and biopsy sample of the patient,” said Dr Sen, adding that medical specialists from other countries also offered their help. 
   
   “Doctors said I might need to stay here for six months,” Abul said, now at a DMCH cabin. However, he is not getting enough rest because of curious visitors, who throng his cabin day long. 
   
   Dr Sen said Ansar members would be deployed today to control the crowd. 
   
   Abul's mother and sister accompanied him to Dhaka on Friday. His wife Halima and three-year-old daughter Tahera will be taken to the city to be by his side, he said. ||||| AFP / Munir Uz Zaman 
   
   Abul Bajandar, 26, dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts on his hands and feet, sits at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Dhaka on January 31, 2016 
   
   A Bangladeshi father dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts on his hands and feet will finally have surgery to remove the growths that first began appearing 10 years ago, a hospital said Sunday. 
   
   Abul Bajandar, from the southern district of Khulna, was undergoing preparations for the surgery to cut out the growths weighing at least five kilogrammes (11 pounds) that have smothered his hands and feet. 
   
   "Initially, I thought that they're harmless," the 26-year-old told AFP at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). 
   
   "But slowly I lost all my ability to work. There are now dozens of two to three inch roots in both my hands. And there are some small ones in my legs," said Bajandar who was forced to quit working as a bicycle puller. 
   
   A team of doctors has been formed to perform the operation at DMCH, Bangladesh's largest state-run hospital, which has decided to waive costs of the treatment. 
   
   Tests are underway to ensure Bajandar's root-like warts can be removed surgically without damaging major nerves or causing any other health problems. 
   
   AFP / Munir Uz Zaman 
   
   A team of doctors has been formed to perform the operation at DMCH, Bangladesh's largest state-run hospital, which has decided to waive costs of the treatment 
   
   The massive warts, which first started appearing when he was a teenager but began spreading rapidly four years ago, have been diagnosed as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic skin disease that makes the person susceptible to skin growths. 
   
   "Popularly it is known as tree-man disease," DMCH director Samanta Lal Sen told AFP. 
   
   "As far as we know there are three such cases in the world including Abul Bajandar. It is the first time we have found such a rare case in Bangladesh," he said. 
   
   An Indonesian villager with massive warts all over his body underwent a string of operations in 2008 to remove them. 
   
   Bajandar's elder sister, Adhuri Bibi, said hundreds of people have visited their home in Khulna over the years to see the "Tree Man". 
   
   "Even here at the hospital, hundreds have already gathered," she told AFP. 
   
   Bajandar, a father of one, said he tried cutting the warts when they first appeared, but it was extremely painful. 
   
   "After that I went to a village homeopath and herbal specialist. But those medicines only worsened my condition." 
   
   He also consulted doctors in neighbouring India, but he and his family could not afford the cost of the operation there.
target: – A father and former bicycle puller is gearing up for major surgery at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh to remove more than 11 pounds of bark-like warts on his hands and feet that have earned him the nickname "tree man." The 26-year-old tells AFP he has suffered from what doctors call epidermodysplasia verruciformis for a decade, but that the growths dramatically increased in size and number four years ago. "Slowly I lost all my ability to work," says Abul Bajandar. "There are now dozens of two to three inch roots in both my hands. And there are some small ones in my legs." The genetic skin disease is so rare that one doctor says there are only three known cases in the world. At first Bajandar says he tried to cut the growths off himself but found it too painful, and when he went to a village homeopath his condition worsened. And while the six-person medical team is already starting to perform blood tests and biopsies, they describe Bajandar as too malnourished and weak for multi-stage plastic surgery, reports the Daily Star. "Doctors said I might need to stay here for six months," he said. His mother and sister are with him now, while his wife and 3-year-old daughter will join him soon. "Even here at the hospital, hundreds have already gathered" to try to get a look at Bajander, says his sister. Surgery is expected to start in three weeks, and the hospital is not charging Bajandar. (This baby's skin blisters when simply touched.)