Girl ceasing treatment short shows tree man syndrome still a medical challenge
10 year old Sahana Khatun is the first female to be diagnosed with the rare condition commonly known as the ‘tree man syndrome.’ The girl from Bangladesh has caught the world’s attention for the rare disease which has never been seen in females before.
Last month, surgeons who operated on Sahana removed some of the bark-like growths from her body. The clinical name of the condition is epidermodysplasia verruciformisa.
However, the girl left the hospital a couple of days ago, cutting short the treatment, since her father feared that his child wouldn’t ever be cured. The girl was under free treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Father claims surgery made condition worse
Even though the doctors hailed the procedure as a success, according to the girl’s father, it only made her condition worse. He, so, wished to spare her from further procedures.
“They removed the bark-like growths and they grew again more thick and strong,” he told the news agency, AFP.”I am scared. They said my daughter needed another 8-10 operations. But what’s the guarantee that she will be cured after that,” he said.
The head of the hospital’s burns and plastic surgery unit, Samanta Lal Sen said he wanted to keep Sahana in the hospital for further surgery. However, Sahan’s father- a poor labourer was against it.
“He left with his daughter, complaining there was no progress. We asked them to stay a few more weeks for treatment,” Sen told AFP.
There are only under a dozen people around the world who are known to suffer from the syndrome. One of them is another Bangladeshi, the 27 year old rickshaw-puller, Abul Bajandar.
Abul had to undergo 21 surgical procedures to remove the growths which weighed about 5 kilograms. Doctors think that he may be the first of the sufferers to be cured.
Sahana’s father-who is a widower, said that he struggled financially during the girl’s treatment. “I had to remain at her side without going to work. I didn’t have any money to feed her properly,” he said.
“She’s the only family I’ve got left and I don’t want to see her sadly sitting in a hospital bed.”
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