JOSE MENDEZ is going to church for the first Christmas
in 20 years,
after having bumpy growths removed surgically from the top of his head.
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Hat's
off for Mendez |
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"I
look like the president of Mexico, only more handsome."
Seated on a small couch next to his wife of 59 years, Jose Mendez jests about his smooth, mostly bald head. "I look like the president of Mexico, only more handsome," jokes Mendez, a frail man and former smoker whose 82-year-old body jolts as his laugh turns to a cough. Mendez, who suffers from a rare skin disorder called "turban tumors," just loves the shiny pate that only months ago he kept covered under a large hat. For all of his adult life he has watched helplessly as small bumps over much of his body grew larger and larger because of the condition. Some took on irregular, bumpy textures like fleshy heads of cauliflower. The largest and most obvious of the growths, a bubbly fist-sized "bola (ball)" as Mendez affectionately called it, was on top of his head. Though Mendez, a retired field worker who lives in El Centro, rarely let the condition affect his life, he did stop going to church 20 years ago in part because of the tumor on his head. "He wanted to go to church, but all the people would just look at him when he took his hat off," says his wife. Cleofas Olmenda de Mendez, 87. "He's been so long without going." But that was before a successful operation this summer in which the worst of the tumors, including the one on his head, were removed. Mendez' family members say they will take him to church this Christmas. And he will take off his hat. And more than likely, no one will look twice, save to admire his warm, sparkling brown eyes.
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Most of his life, Mendez, one of seven siblings with the condition, declined any efforts to get a doctor to treat or remove the growths. "He developed a strong aversion to medical treatment after his 40-year-old brother died from complications when a doctor in Mexico tried to remove similar tumors from his face. Despite enduring considerable discomfort at times, Mendez grew accustomed to his appearance, even joking with his grandchildren about his "tomatoes colorados" or "red tomatoes." Ironically, one medical name for the condition is "tomato tumors." Even Mrs. Mendez got used to them. "They didn't affect me. I loved him," she says. "Wahl,
45 has seen some pretty serious things" in his career, but said he
was "really speechless" when Mendez walked in.
This summer, however, Mrs. Mendez became alarmed when tumors on her husband's head became infected and began bleeding heavily. One day, she pulled a small worm from an infected "ball." "There was so much blood I didn't have enough bandages to clean it," says Mrs. Mendez. Faced with the severe bleeding and infection, Mendez agreed to see El Centro doctor Uberto Muzzarelli. It was Muzzarelli who referred Mendez to Dr. Keith Wahl, a plastic surgeon working out of Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego and Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley. Wahl, 45, has seen some "pretty serious things" in his career, but said he was "really speechless" when Mendez walked in. >> Condition is Rare, Treatable story
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