Interesting wiki on him. He was a carpenter until his condition prevented him from working. He divorced his wife since he couldn't support the family. He was later hired by a carnival owner to be a part of a traveling freak show.

All things considered I feel like 44 is pretty good with how crazy that condition must be on your body. Heartbreaking thinking of how much pain he must’ve gone through in 44 years.

Are there pics of him post surgery?

Some of the stuff going on with his hands and feet is far beyond "warts". What would a medical professional even call some of that? (and was it also removed?)

Are there any post op pictures

jesus christ why do i read this shit when i'm already miserable. lol

I saw a special on this guy on a Spanish speaking channel as a kid. Early 90’s. I always wondered what happened to him because it was a big deal to me that this kid was part tree.

Why couldn’t they remove all the warts? Too dangerous or painful?

I remember watching the 08 episode with my mom

ah fuck i didnt know he died... damn.

Glad to hear that he got the help he needed to have a few more good years at the end.

Holyshit the Tree Man? After 6 years 2016 still takes more and more lives

Why didnt he treat it early?

I had no idea he had passed!!!

Poor guy. The only one worse than him was that guy who couldn't straighten so his face was smashed in his crotch all the time

Just to make sure, those are warts‽

I remember reading about all this live, but never got the update about death. RIP Dede!

This is tragic because supposedly he could have been treated with povidone iodine.

When I was a kid I had like 30+ warts on my feet, hands, knees, and was beginning to get some on my face. I was incredibly embarrassed of them. Then one day while goofing around with my cousin, I skinned my knee on the carpet and the biggest one on my body separated from my knee, leaving this deep bloody crater. It bled for over an hour. Within a matter of days, maybe a couple of weeks, every wart on my body vanished and I've been wart-free since.

The injury to your wart led to local inflammation, kickstarting your immune system which now realized that the warts had virus and were foreign.

it's like killing the head vampire, you kill them all

Holy shit, I had something like this too. When I was 10-13, both of my hands were covered in warts. Like, 15-20 on each hand. They lasted years, with me emptying bottles of wart remover on all of them to no effect. One night I was so frustrated and overwhelmed by it that I spent an hour trying to bite or cut them off of my fingers. They bled profusely for an hour, but never grew back after that.

Your body cleared the virus that was causing the warts.

Something similar happened to me. Had lots of warts eith the main one being on my head under the hair. One time while cutting my hair the barbers trimmer got stuck on the wart and he pulled back hard which got it removed. In a matter of weeks all other warts on my body dropped. I had been getting treatment for them for years and visiting different doctors and nothing worked.

Very interesting indeed.

The same thing happened to me as a kid. I used to have warts all over my fingers. One day I was banging on a door to get someone’s attention. My fist grazed the metal frame of the door and one of the warts on my knuckle got sheared clean off. Blood everywhere. Not long after that the warts started to disappear. That was more than 30 years ago. Haven’t had a wart since.

Biology can be fuckin' weird.

Your mother also slept with a demon that night.

I've seen this pic floating in the internet for years now, but today I noticed his shirt. How tf did he put in on???

Guess no one gave you a serious answer: His clothes were custom made by his mother, and had multiple zippers, which he could operate by himself unlike buttons.

My guess would be that the shirt has been modified with buttons going down the sleeves on the underside and down the sides, so you basically put his head through the neck hole and drape the shirt over his back and front, then button up the sides and sleeves.

He's had it on since he was 10. It was a little bit big on him then though

One branch at a time.

definitely looks more loose robe style if you look on the right side of the picture. possibly magnetic buttons but you would have to assume someone has to help.

Maybe his branches are squishy? More like shrubs?

Someone put on him

The worst GAP ad of all time.

You know I want to know that too. Like his hands would not fit through those arm holes…

He grew into it🤔

This would not make a good Gap commercial.

He looks like he's slowly turning into a tree.

Magnetic buttons.

It’s all squishy

Looks like it's an oversized shirt

His weakened immune system, however, caused the virus to grow out of control, resulting in Koswara developing warts which covered the majority of his body, warts which would earn him the moniker of “tree man”. The warts remained on his body throughout his childhood and into adulthood.

The surgery was never going to be terribly successful. By the time they attempted it, the bones in his hands and feet had largely been destroyed by the physical damage caused by the virus. He lacked the bone structure to ever again have functional dexterity in his hands. This was probably just as much a factor for his unemployment as the taboo of a skin-contact transmissive virus.

So he was married before he was first treated?

Alledgely before and after surgery of another case where patient looks totally normal when finished

This sort of thing makes genuinely super sad. Just like all of us, this guy had one shot at life, and because of something that happened when he was a kid the rest of his life was negatively affected. I genuinely hope theres an afterlife, and that this dude went to heaven because most people don’t deserve what happened to him

So the tree man was a carpenter.

He may have died a lonely man but this story doesn't make him sound like the loneliest man in recorded history. The dude had a wife...

[удалено]

I don't think it's the stigma that made people avoid him. It's what they have in front of their eyes

I had no idea human skin cells could look like that

I feel bad but with health anomalies like this I can't help but want to visually study it for hours

Not me. Regretting looking at this right before bed 😩

Wait I thought he had Lewandowsky-Lutz dysplasia?

Apparently you're right. Le-something's main symptom is very high susceptibility to HPV so instead of small warts you get huge relentless growths. Must be horrible to keep it untreated for so long.

I mean, I would consider that one tribal dude who is the last of his tribe living in the Amazon to be pretty lonely.

Who?

Wait... okay so the fleshy shit is warts upon warts upon warts. What is the elephant tusk looking shit? Is that fingernails growing like crazy? Does it just look like it's hard but is still just warts?

Probably keratin. You can get keratitotic horns that look exactly like that. The largest one I have grossed was 3 x 2 x 2 cm, none like in this pic though.

If you define the loneliest man as the person who was furthest away from any other human being, the answer would be Michael Collins. When the US landed on the moon they sent three astronauts up. Two of them actually stepped on the moon - Neil Armstrong ("One small step..." guy) and Buzz Aldrin. The third guy, Michael Collins, remained in orbit around the moon in the shuttle. When he was on the opposite side of the moon in orbit he was further away from the next closest person then anyone has ever been in human history.

I only know this story due to Karl Pilkington

I would define loneliest person as the person who has the least human contact for the longest period of time. Michale Collins I’d call the “most isolated” of all time. Loneliness is about duration imo.

Collins: “Are those motherfuckers golfing??”

There were six successful moon landings. So six different guys had that same experience.

He would also have been super-lonely in that there was no radio communication that could be made then from the far side of the moon to any human that would have been able to pick up his signal. Even NASA didn't know anything about the spacecraft once it went behind the moon and had to wait until it emerged on the other side to know he was still in one piece.

All the Apollo astronauts were in orbit on the far side of the moon at one point.

He also had no radio contact whilst on the other side of the moon. Nothing except the vastness of space.

Yeah, but is no one else concerned that forests have diseases that can turn you into a fucking tree?

Catachan forest that is

Theres a good chance that you have hpv as well

He got that from HPV??? Wtf I thought HPV was an STD?

you can contract it through skin-to-skin contact as well. But this dude suffers from epidermodysplasia verruciformis which causes the HPV to grow and appear bark like

There are over 100 HPVs, normal warts are often caused by a HPV. What they have in common is that they replicate in the outter skin layer to evade an immune response. Further growth is limited by immune response when the virus spreads to deeper layers, so warts often stay the same size or vanish and reappear.

It's a family of viruses, like how COVID and SARS are both in the corona virus family. One member of the HPV family causes genital warts, another cause regular warts, another cause cervical cancer. There's a bunch of them though and I don't know which one this guy had.

I have a form of HPV but it’s entirely on the bottoms of my feet and the warts grow under the skin. I have to get em cut out every few years. Most likely got it from a public pool sidewalk. It’s incurable but it’s not terrible. There are tons of diff strains of HPV that affect different areas

HPV is just a virus that can spread via any skin contact or even via objects like towels and flooring. It's actually a very hardy virus, bleach can kill it, and high temperatures, but most antiseptics don't.

There are a ton of HPV strains, if you have ever had a wart on your toe or knee or finger, you've had HPV. Most people immune systems are strong enough to fight off the virus and warts usually resolve on their own. When I was a kid I got a wart on my toe from just walking around my friends house barefoot (friend also had warts on their feet).

There are over 150 strains of HPV, and only about 40 of them are classified as STIs. Pretty much all warts are caused by some form of HPV.

Different hpv

Something like 80% of the sexually active population has some form of HPV - it's just a certain kind that causes genital warts.

Everyone gets infected by HPV at some point of their life. Your organisms kills it, usually even before warts develop.

Someone had sex with the cut on his knee.

This case has always stuck with me. He honestly had very handsome facial features underneath the warts, it's sad to think about how different his life could have been. That shit looks so fuckin gnarly and it had to be heavy, painful, and physically awful as well as mentally and socially. Poor dude suffered so much.

Yeah he was a husband with kids, imagine how much that would just fuck up your life. I would probably wanna be hidden away and just put out my misery at the tiniest bit of that point

I like his hair

How could he be alone he wouldn’t survive without help from other humans

Read OPs comment, his whole family abandoned him. You dont have to be alone to be lonely

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure he has a severe immunodeficiency of some kind, causing the HPV to spread so rampantly

Best Margit the Fell Omen cosplay I’ve seen

I was scrolling just looking for the elden ring reference

I had to scroll way too far to find this hahaha

This guy's story is so sad. There were two different doctors who were essentially treating him. One was a specialist who wanted to go for a less and easier treatment plan and one who advised and manipulated him into doing a drastic surgery procedure which just ruined everything. He had to under go 2 surgeries a year to keep the warts at bay and ended up dieing from complications.

That poor man.

With all respect, I do wonder how he got the shirt on. Maybe there was a split on the back of the sleeves?

Theyre custom made by his mom

This * Rabies = Clicker from the last of us.

I could imagine seeing someone like this in medieval days and believing in curses and magic.

Oh my this is horrific poor thing

[удалено]

In that article there’s a quote of him saying the only people who thought he was lonely were the press lol.

TLDR on why he’s considered that?

The real wtf is the title

There’s a TWiV episode on this disease.

This Week in Virology! The Podcast About Viruses. The Kind That Make You Sick

What is happening here

The virus is causing warts to grow into this bark-like structure. Normally it wouldn't be nearly as bad, as your immune system is fighting the virus, however Dede's immune system was dysfunctional so the warts spread and grew uncontrollably.

This might be a stupid question, but if he hadn't cut his knee that day in the forest, would it have stopped this from happening? Or would any future cut trigger this response from his body?

From my 5 minute research he probably suffered from "treeman syndrome" which increases susceptibility to the papilloma virus. His immune system was weak in regards to the virus so it probably was bound to happen. Apparently it's genetic and not curable unless you take medications for it for the rest of your life (which would probably cause a whole bunch of other side effects in the long run.).

Not the best source but:

This hurts my heart. Tragic.

Even 200 years ago people would have assumed some tree spirit put a curse on him.

Weirdest title.

This is terrible, poor guy. I feel victims of abuse and even war trauma can experience loneliness. I remember the case of

He’s got a great hair

this makes me wonder if some of the myths from ancient civilizations were actually people with anomalies like these

He was Groot

How do they not like this guy. This dude is literally groot

Such a sad and horrible life to endure, he probably was a kind loving soul.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! Well I guess hiking is out of the picture now. Thanks internet!

He was fine by after noon. This is just morning wood.

Why loneliest? What keeps him from human relationships? Wasn't Michael Collins loneliest person in human history? Since he was farthest away from any human and cut off of any communications when he was behind the moon, while Aldrin and Armstrong was on it.

But that was temporary, and his family didn't abandon him

How did he even get that shirt on?

How did he get his hands through those sleeves..?

I thought they fixed him up.

Can’t be the loneliest; he didn’t put on that shirt without help.

Epidermodysplasia verruciformis

This dude died in 2016. At one point he had surgery to remove a large amount of the growths, and was able to live somewhat independently for the first time in many years.

Margrit the fell Omen

He had epidermodysplasia verruciformis, which causes the HPV to grow uncontrollably. You missed a huge part of the actual story

Those are warts from having HPV? I would think you would have to go years without medical care to get that bad. How to you wipe your butt? Urinate? I am lost for words with this one. If this is from HPV only then I am never raw dogging again.

That's terrible he had to live like this. Poor guy, RIP.

I have mild psoriasis and every time I get a new outbreak somewhere on my body I fear that this will be the outcome.

Is he turning into wood or wtf is going on here?

looks like a pretty decent guy beneath those roots

That's a nice shirt though.

he looks like a miniboss in elden ring

The title is misleading. He had a wife and kids after that!

What does him cutting his knee have to do with anything?

That's an interesting title... Care to tell us where the horrifying levels of keratosis came from?

He is groot.

seeing people like this at least helps me understand how myths and fables got started back in the day.

that's not hpv

Bro is homie still alive?

Wonder what it felt like, rubbery like a regular wart or brittle like it looks?

That doesn’t mean he was lonely.

It's basically the herpes virus which is super common, Idk how it progressed to this stage.

Now I know why immunity is a blessing. May everyone out there stay safe.

Last of Us 3.

How does he get that shirt on?

There was a special about him a long time ago on the Discovery channel. They were able to remove of what you see here on his hands and feet. From what I understand he died in 2016.

Here’s a photo of a deer with HPV. Poor thing.

I... Am... Groot?

I think I killed this guy in Elden Ring.

I'm upset I had to scroll this far down to find a Margit reference

Quite sad. Looked like a handsome man.

Would be sad even if he was ugly.

I am Groot

Wasn’t astronaut Michael Collins the first most isolated person circling the back side of the moon with only two people on the moons other side and the rest of humanity on Earth?

In terms of physical proximity, absolutely. But there sure were a lot of people heavily invested in his safe return. So it depends how you're defining "isolated."

No way that origin story is true

He does look all spruced up

I’m Groot… But seriously how do you eat, wipe your butt, pick your nose? This is incredibly fascinating but so sad at the same time

jesus all the groot and elden ring jokes ffs be a bit more original pls?

Actual answer? Man of the Hole, an uncontacted tribesman who has lived in the Brazilian rainforest for decades alone as the last of his tribe

Margit the fell omen's origin story.

Yeah my first thought went to... Damn, I guess some of those Elden Ring bosses aren't so unrealistic after all.

why were hpv positive bodily fluids casually hanging out in a forest

This isn’t from hpv

So he had EV epidermodysplasia vertuciformis. EV causes HPV to grow warts uncontrollably. Dede died in 2016.

I AM GROOT!!!!

You guys get all your Groot jokes out at the expense of this suffering human? Think about what they go through daily. Please try empathy instead of jokes.

I understand but imagine for a second that you're asking this of a group of predominantly children and teenagers whom we do not let run amuck for a reason. Specifically this reason. They are not emotionally regulated and do not self boundary themselves. There are individuals that learn to do these things more quickly but the majority do not.

.... .... I am Groot?

What is the material of those things growing on him?

Human

I am Groot!

Nope. That is not HPV. That's Epidermodysplasia verruciformis.

“EV is characterized by abnormal susceptibility to human papillomaviruses (HPVs) of the skin. The resulting uncontrolled HPV infections result in the growth of scaly macules and papules resembling tree bark, particularly on the hands and feet.”

Nothing like getting a manicure and a squirrel leaps out.

The last of us in real life.

I AM GROOT

But if you’re not treated you become a tree? Can someone explain what the hell is going on here?

He wasn't actually turning into a tree. He had a defective immune system that was incapable of controlling that particular wart virus and the virus just carried on growing until it finally killed him.

I am Groot.

Your dead before this.

“Fairly common.” That’s the part that really got me.

It's from the same family of viruses that cause the common wart. This person's immune system was not working correctly so the viral infection went out of control.

That lady who got hit by an asteroid

Now you all stop we need to get to the root cause of this

He should get into fisting porn

That Dede guy definitely got dealt a shitty hand with his condition but that doesn’t mean he was “lonely”. Dude lived in a village surrounded by people and was somewhat of a celebrity. That doesn’t qualify as lonely in my book.