Weird Medical Facts

At 15 years old, Dede Koswara was learning to be a fisherman.  He was learning how to build things.  He was a happy boy living in Indonesia.  Then he cut his knee.  It was all downhill from there.

His knee took a long time to heal, and a wart formed where the abrasion used to be.  Then more warts formed around it.  He went on with his life, became a fisherman and builder, got married, had a couple of kids.  But his problem got worse and worse.  More warts grew on top of even more warts, and over the course of several years, despite treatment from local doctors, Dede was overrun with warts that looked like tree bark, earning him the nickname “The Tree Man.”

Dede lived for 20 years with this condition, which is basically an HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) infection that raged out of control because of Dede’s compromised immune system.  When American doctors first started treated Dede they assumed that he had AIDS – for what else could compromise Dede’s immune system so?  Tests showed that Dede does not have AIDS, so his immuno deficiency is a mystery.

Dede’s growths weren’t painful, unless they get tangled up or hung up on something.  But they just kept growing – and bugs nested in the bark-like tangle of what used to look like feet.  His hands got so bad that he couldn’t feed himself.  He can’t touch his children.  His condition is not contagious – in fact nobody in his family has gotten a single wart – but the growths are so rough and hard that he cannot experience tactile sensation through them.

So an American dermatologist named Anthony Gaspari worked with the Indonesian government to get some treatment for Dede.  In January of 2008, Dede underwent the first of what will be 8 surgeries to try to remove the 4-12 pounds of warts on his slight 100-pound frame.  After the first 4 surgeries, Dede was able to hold a pen in his hand and write.  He was able to hold a fork, and at least the outline of his feet were visible.

Unfortunately, the doctors don’t see a full recovery in Dede’s future.  Gaspari hopes to get Dede a Visa and get him over to the United States for further testing to see if they can identify and treat Dede’s immune disorder, which is truly the root of all his trouble.  If they can fix his immune system, his body will fight off the HPV, and he won’t grow any more warts.

An ABCNews article says that doctors are skeptical that Dede will ever be cured.  Even with the surgeries, he still has a solid covering of warts.

Dede hopes someday to be cured enough to find a nice woman to fall in love with and marry.  His first wife, the mother of his children, left him when his growths raged out of control.

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Here at BizarreMedical.com we talk a lot about weird diseases, a little bit about common diseases, and a little bit about the medical industry – both current and in bygone times.  One area we’ve stayed away from so far is body modification.  One reason is that people are sensitive about their bodies – both the things that happen to their bodies that they can’t control, and the things they choose to do to their bodies.

So without judgment at all, I submit the body modification practice known as “pocketing.”  It’s also called an “art implant,” a “3-D implant,” and the more technical “subdermal implant.”  Instead of piercing something on the outside and attaching body jewelry to it, this process involved inserting the jewelry under the skin so that the outline of it shows through the skin.  Almost like a body-jewelry-shaped growth or appendage. Regard:

photo by PRIMITIVECHILE body piercing y body modificacion

Wikipedia tells us that there are subdermal implants, like you see above, and transdermal implants, which would be implants that have something that sticks out of the skin.  So imagine the photo above, but with part of the inner implant showing.  The picture below shows this kind of implant – look at the guy’s forehead.

picture from wikipedia

Procedurally, the guy or gal who does this to you should be pretty skilled.  And everything should be STERILE.  Sheesh.  The chance for infection is pretty severe, and it’s also (albeit remotely) possible that your body will reject the implant.  They basically have to cut into you, hold your skin out with something called a dermal separator, and stick something under there and sew you back up.

Some people go WAY beyond a simple subdermal or transdermal implant and go all out.  There’s Stalking Cat, who has been implanted and tattooed to look like a cat.  Born Dennis Avner, Stalking Cat has subdermal implants along his forehead, and on the bridge of his nose to make his face catlike.  He also has transdermal implants on the cheeks next to his nose to allow for whisker-type piercings.  Check him out.

Another guy, Erik Sprague, calls himself The Lizardman.  and he’s made himself up to look like a (guess?) lizard.  He performs all over the place, eating fire and swallowing swords and stuff.  An ex Ph.D. candidate, he now lives in Austin, Texas and does performance art full time.  He’s appeared in the Jim Rose Circus, Todd Robins Carnival Knowledge, and more, and has toured and performed with bands like Godsmack, Hatebreed, and Slayer, to name a few.  Check him out.

There are others who have decided to turn their whole body into works of art.  There’s Katzen (the Cat Lady), The Enigma, Stelarc, and the infamous Fakir Musafar.  What makes someone decide to do permanent and painful modification to their body?

One school of thought is that the people suffer from body dysmorphic disorder.  This can manifest as an eating disorder, a preoccupation with extensive plastic surgery (think Michael Jackson or Jocelyn Wildenstein), or a desire to completely change your outward appearance.  Body dysmorphic disorder’s symptoms include “obsessive and compulsive behaviors related to perceived appearance defects” and (according to wikipedia’s sources) “any kind of body modification that may change one’s appearance.”

On the opposite side, the Church of Body Modification would disagree.  They “honor all forms of body modification and those who choose to practice body modification for any reason. “  They say that they “believe our bodies belong only to ourselves are are a whole and integrated entity:  mind, body, and soul.  We maintain we have the right to alter them for spiritual or other reasons.”

Additionally, the COBM also states that they don’t hold it against people who choose NOT to practice body modification.  That’s a lot more tolerance than non-body modifiers likely give to The Lizardman.

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J.M. Barrie once said “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”  Can you imagine remembering ALL the roses EVERY December?  Can you imagine remembering pretty much everything?  That’s what it is like for people who having Piking, or Hyperthymestic Syndrome.

photo by gutter

In an article for the Wisconsin Medical Society, Dr. Darold Treffert talks about the different forms of extremely good memory.  He talks about memory where people memorize facts, music, geographic details automatically.  He says that they are mainly the result of savant memory, though he does qualify this in bringing up cases where the people with extraordinary memories were not savants, but mnemonists – people who retain images but can “turn off” and force themselves to forget the huge amount of data their brain collects and stores.

Then he tells us about Brad Williams, who has hyperthymestic syndrome.  Brad has been interviewed by Good Morning America, who calls him “the Human Google.”  His brother, Eric, has made a biography on Brad.  Called “Unforgettable,” the documentary is due out soon.

Brad is one of only a handful of people considered for study under the diagnosis of hyperthymestic syndrome.  The subjects are able to recall the day of the week for any given date, and are able to tell researchers all about what happened to them that day – what they were wearing, who they saw, and what public events happened that day.  Of the three people studied, two are left-handed, but scientists are not sure if there is correlation there, because so few people are actually diagnosed with this syndrome.

Do you know more about this?  Do you have additional information to share?  Please comment below!

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