You may remember Bizarre first broke the story of Dede the Tree Man in March 2007, while he was working the freakshow circuit in Java, Indonesia. Dede suffers from the human papilloma
virus (HPV), and an abnormally depressed immune system which resulted in tree-like roots and warts sprouting from his body.

He could barely walk, his hands were unusable, and the growths above his eyes had begun to affect his sight. Since his first media exposure in this magazine, Dede has featured in a major Discovery Channel TV documentary, and for the last nine months has been staying at Bandung’s Hasan Sadikin hospital courtesy of the Indonesian government, where doctors have played tree surgeons during six operations and two rounds of plastic surgery.

Their clever roots manoeuvres have left the 38-year-old transformed – he can now see all of his separate fingers and thumbs for the first time in years, and is able to hold a pen which he uses to text on his mobile phone. His feet fit comfortable house sandals, and the smelly fungal fug that emanated from his body is finally gone.

And after eating healthy hospital food for months, Dede’s previously skinny body has filled out too, despite him putting on only 0.5kg – which doesn’t make sense until you realise that doctors cut off nearly 7kg of growths from his hands alone.

That white, mouldy-looking forest gunk you see on his limbs is in fact a cream to promote healing, wrapped in plastic to hold it close to his skin and prevent infection. Dede will also continue with a course of synthetic Vitamin A supplied free by Dr Gaspari and his colleagues from the University Of Maryland Medical Center, who met him as part of the TV documentary.

The drug should help stop the growths from reappearing – but only if Dede’s system manages to cope with it. Fingers crossed, Tree Man is set to pack his trunk and return home at the end of August. Which is great, because he’s bored out of his skull. “I did Sudokus for the first five months and then bought a DVD player,” Dede told Bizarre.

“I’ve only been outside in the hospital grounds three times since I arrived. I can’t wait to leave, although I’ll still have to visit the hospital once a week to let the doctors continue their treatment. I think the worst operations were the skin grafts for my arms. My family can’t believe it. They’re overwhelmed. It’s great for them to be able see my face again.”

The new, healthier Dede has even stopped smoking after being a packet-a-day man…well, almost. “I have a sly one out of the bathroom window when the nurses aren’t watching,” he says. We wonder whether he’ll resist the temptation if he stocks ciggies in the shop he plans to open in his village.

He’s already bought a van to carry stock for his new venture, which he’ll also use to ferry guests to his second wedding. “I met my girlfriend Ningsih during a sideshow in West Java last August. She visited me every day, and we swapped numbers. We’ve been in close touch ever since. She’s a teacher, a year older than me, and we’re both divorced. I don’t see why we shouldn’t get married once I’ve got my business going.”

New job, new partner, new body; Tree Man is really branching out. We wonder if he has any final words for Bizarre? For a long while he is quiet. We fear the worst. Then we realise that he doesn’t want to cry in front of us. “Thank-you,” he finally says.