VietNamNet Bridge - Mr. Vo Hong Quan, born in 1968, who lives with his parents in Khuong Ninh Hamlet, Go Cong Tay District, Tien Giang Province, is carrying thousands of large and small humps on his body.

His mother said she has nine children, all of them are normal, except for Quan (the sixth child).

At birth, Quan was plump and normal. He developed like other children until 7-8 years of age, swhen mall bumps began appearing on the face.

At the age of 15, tumors developed across his body and spread very quickly. Thousands of tumors with different shapes and sizes have turned Quan into a man with bizarre shape.

Once he was taken to the My Tho Hopsital by her cousin. The doctors told him that he suffered from nervous tumors which could not be treated. Since then he has ignored the tumors and has not sought medical treatment elsewhere.

Quan said that in addition to making him ugly, uncomfortable, sometimes these knobs also caused pain but not much.




Aside from tumors, Quan has defects in the right leg and left arm, caused by an accident.

Recognized as a disable, Quan benefits from the social welfare policy, earning VND180,000 ($9) per month.

Because of illness, Quan is still single and lives with his parents. Sometimes he was hired to keep houses, gardens, ponds, etc. for their relatives and was paid by meals.

His parents are over 80 years old. His brothers and sisters have their own family and they are all poor so they cannot support Quan until the end of his life. Quan is now 44 years old and is unable to work. The allowance of VND180,000 per month is not enough for his minimal needs so he does not dare to go to hospital.

However, he still dreams to be completely cured for the disease to "live with people in a decent way".

In Vietnam, there are also some similar cases like Quan, who were even called persons with "devil figure", such as Ms. Thach Thi Sa Ly (35 years old, Soc Trang province), Ms. Nguyen Thi Dang (60 years old, Ha Nam), Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chieu (41, Hanoi,) Ms. Nguyen Thi Nghia (58, Quang Nam) and Mr. Le Bay (51, Quang Nam Province).

Thach Thi Sa Ly is very lucky to be operated on by American surgeon McKay McKinnon and doctors of the Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and has escaped from thousands of tumors since January 2012.

Compiled by Nam Nguyen