NPR

Rare Skin Disease Ruined Gaza Man's Life — Until Israeli Doctors Stepped In

He was in pain, he could not work, he was ashamed. He'd been told there was no treatment. Then he went to Hadassah Medical Center.
The growths on Muhammad Taluli's hands were from a severe case of a rare condition called epidermodysplasia verruciformis — sometimes called "tree man" disease because the tumors can resemble wood or bark.

Muhammad Taluli arrived from Gaza at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center a few months ago and unwrapped the cloth from his hands to reveal grey and white growths that looked like tree bark. The doctors had never seen anything like it.

In fact, there have only been a handful of such extreme cases of this rare condition — called epidermodysplasia verruciformis — documented in medical literature around the world, says Dr. Michael, senior hand and microvascular surgeon at Hadassah, who is overseeing the man's treatment.

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