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Showing posts from April, 2019

The Ryan White Story

Ryan Wayne White  was an American teenager from  Kokomo, Indiana . Ryan was born with hemophilia A, a rare, inherited disorder in which the blood system does not clot normally because of an inability to produce "factor VIII," a prosaically named protein related to this critical process. When a hemophiliac suffers a blunt or bruising injury to the body, internal bleeding often occurs, which causes damage to one's organs and can be life-threatening. Although there is no cure for hemophilia, doctors treat the bleeding episodes with injections of factor VIII to help the clotting process along. But in the years (say 80's) before the threat of HIV/AIDS became widely understood, this substance was pooled and isolated from thousands of anonymous and untested blood donations. What no one knew back then was that every time a pediatrician administered this seemingly life-saving elixir, there was a real risk of administering an HIV-contaminated dose. This was the way i

Abul Bajandar the Tree-man

He isn't really turning into tree, but the reality is almost as scary. The official name for this condition is Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, but it is  more commonly known as tree man syndrome due to the bark like appearance of the lesions it causes. For years, 28-year-old Abul Bajandar, from  Bangaldesh , was covered with what looked like bark. His hands and feet grew foot-long, gnarled "roots," skin lesions that left him unable to feed himself, move around, work, or wear standard clothing. A few years ago, surgery finally changed his life. But after  more than 25 invasive surgeries  (since 2016) to remove the bark-like skin growths sprouting from his hands and feet, Bajandar, sometimes referred to as the “tree man,” is back where he started. What is epidermodysplasia verruciformis? Epidermodysplasia verruciformis  ( EV ), also known as  treeman syndrome , is an extremely  rare   autosomal recessive   hereditary skin disorder  associated with a high