Shell-like mole removed from ‘Turtle Boy’

With all kinds of aberration happening to people everywhere, here is another one that has changed the life of a boy from being abnormal and pathetic to being normal and productive, thanks to a compassionate British doctor who performed the surgery.

This is about Didier Montalvo, a 6-year-old boy who earned the moniker ‘Turtle Boy’ in his native Columbia because of a shell-like mole that covered his back. The mole grew directly proportional to his body growth.

The doctors call this rare condition as Congenital Melanocytic Nevus (CMN).

Didier became the subject of ridicule to the extent that his family was even ostracized because superstitious neighbors thought that the boy’s condition was due to evil forces. The boy even suffered the ignominy of not having been baptized and not having been allowed to attend school.

The plight of Didier got to the attention of Dr. Neil Bulstrode, a plastic surgeon and an expert in treating patients with CMN, who wasted no time in flying to Columbia to help a team of surgeons remove Didier’s birthmark, which had grown so big that it was feared it could become malignant.

Didier today, a happy kid (Photo courtesy of U.K.'s Channel 4)

According to Dr. Bulstrode, “Didier’s was the worst case I had ever seen. Effectively three quarters of the circumference of his body was affected.”

Dr. Bulstrode is said to carry out about 40 CMN removals a year on patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the U.K.

Didier is now living a normal life and accepted in the society after a successful and free surgery, courtesy of the humanitarian effort of the British doctor.