A Bangladeshi man dubbed 'The Tree Man' has returned to hospital after his condition worsened despite multiple operations in 2016.
Abul Bajandar suffers from the rare disease epidermodysplasia verruciformis, which causes tree-like warts and imperfections to grow on his body. The condition is caused by a defect in his immune system.
Mr Bajandar first noticed the condition when he was 10 years-old, before the condition grew over time into a state so bad it forced him to retire from his job as a rickshaw driver.
He has undergone more than 25 surgeries since 2016, but doctors told CNN he failed to finish his treatment.
"It's a complicated case and we were making progress but he left to go home," said Dr Samanta Lal Sen, co-ordinator at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
"I requested him many times to come back but he didn't. He came back to the hospital on Sunday with his mother. He should have come here six months back - he came too late."
His hands are now covered in one-inch long lesions, and the warts have also spread to his feet and other body parts. He will need at least five more operations to remove them.
"I want to live like a normal person. I just want to be able to hold my daughter properly and hug her," he said in an interview in 2016.
Newshub.
