Half Man, Half Tree
Last night, I caught a program by Discovery Channel on this story. Long story short, this Indon Guy, Dede, has a weak immune system and when a bacteria/virus attacked him, his body could not fight it off. As such, warts grew out onto his skin as waste product. A noted dermatologist all the way from the States came by air, land and sea. He travelled all the way just to help Dede…and obviously to conduct some research into it..and possibly highlighted in some noted medical journal.
Anyway, as part of ensuring that his family has money to survive on (he was a fisherman before this), he is part of a ‘circus’ troop. This ‘circus’ is basically a group of people travelling from town to town showing their skin disorders. Of course, the average (KPC) person would repel in disgust as they have not been exposed to such disorders before. I must say, that their skin is so bad that I believe no one would have seen such a thing before.
In anycase, the head circusman is an entrepreneur who is making heaps of money out of them (basically a bloodsucker), but he says that he has given them a chance to earn some money, instead of leaving them idle. His rationale is, “Who else would hire them?”
Well, that noted dermatologist took samples and after 2 months, found a possible cure for Dede. In the beginning of the show, you could Dede was desperate to find a cure and his wish to resume a normal life. But towards the end, it was a different result. After this dermatologist found a cure…….it appeared that Dede preferred to remain in his current condition (which was actually deteriorating), so that he could continue performing in his ‘freak’ show. It was very obvious that Dede preferred to earn money this way, instead of being a fisherman.
I wonder now……did he do this so that his kids could have some money to survive…or he was so comfortable in this condition, that he didn’t want to change anything.
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That is unusual disease.
I have never heard of it. Hoping he can back to a normal human life.
Ya. I read about this guy. He looks really scary. Poor thing….Life is so bad that he has to endure this disease so as to earn more money than being a fisherman.