Update on Dr. Gaspari and Dede Kosawa

By Madison Park
CNN
updated 2:23 p.m. EDT, Fri October 3, 2008


"For 20 years, the warts studding Dede Kosawa's hands and feet multiplied and sprouted like gnarled roots."

"His hands looked like contorted, yellow-brown branches extending 3 feet.
ble to clamp his hands into a fist or pick up a fork, he made his living by
performing in carnivals in rural Indonesia. He became known as the Treeman."


"In 2007, as word spread about Kosawa's condition, he was brought into an Indonesian hospital for treatment.
About 12 pounds of cutaneous horns were sawed from his hands and feet.
Skin grafts were taken from his back and buttocks and placed on his forearm. "

"Gaspari often disagreed with the Indonesian doctors' procedures such the skin grafts,
saying it was invasive and could be infected with the virus."

"After several surgeries, Kosawa has been able to walk, lift a fork and write. He was discharged
from the hospital in early September. The warts have been reappearing, but Kosawa
is receiving chemotherapy to stop the virus."

"Gaspari continues to monitor Kosawa's progress through e-mails and teleconference calls
with Indonesian doctors. "

"You can see the outlines of his hands," Gaspari said. "It's still covered in warts.
Before, you couldn't tell the top from the bottom.
He has definitely made progress and gained some weight."

"The experts are waiting to learn more about Kosawa's reaction to the medical treatments, Gaspari said."

"The story has not fully unfolded yet."


Link to photos & full story about Dede

I had 5 warts on my right hand that made a W by connecting the dots, when I was a teenager. They had such deep roots that they felt like they were rooted in the bones of my fingers. I tried to remove one of them with a commercial chemical compound called "Wart-X," but it just grew back bigger. Then one day one of my gfs took me to a wart-wisher to have them wished away. The wart-wisher flicked each wart with a piece of straw, and told me to forget all about them. "Don't look at them," she said, "don't touch them, just put them out of your mind and pretend like they aren't there." I did as she said, and then, after a few months had gone by, I remembered them, and looked again, only to find that the warts had gone completely away, never to return.