Fearing the Face Off

What do you do when you believe God is telling you two different things?

And can you figure out what this is?

The object is the face of Jose Mestre. He’s 51, unemployed and wishes he could get a girlfriend. He also has a giant cluster of blood-swollen tumors on his face.

But he’s a Jehovah’s Witness, which means that he thinks that God told him that getting a blood transfusion is a horrible sin. But he also thinks God is telling him that his face is trying to kill him.

So he’s getting a Doctor to use a new procedure that is fairly bloodless to excise the 12 pounds of grossness from his skull. From the Telegraph here:

A Jehovah’s Witness who for decades refused all surgery on his horrific facial disfigurement has been given hope by a British doctor and new medical technology.

Now 15 inches long and weighing 12 pounds, the tumors have blinded him in one eye and made eating a daily ordeal. As it begins to block his airways, doctors fear his life could be in danger.

But now one of Britain’s leading facial surgeons has proposed treating Jose, 51, by employing ultrasound waves to coagulate the blood before the operation.

This should allow his growths to be removed without risk of heavy bleeding – satisfying his religious prohibition on blood transfusions that has so far hampered his search for treatment.

Jose’s condition, haemangioma, stems from abnormalities in the capillaries and veins in his face. In effect, what should be a river carrying blood back to his heart has turned into a lake, which has now expanded to obliterate the rest of his features.

Unable to find work or a girlfriend, he has been supported by his siblings since the death of his mother, with whom he was very close and from whom he took his religious beliefs.

This story comes from TLC, the great TV company that is quickly becoming known for its “sideshow” programming. I wrote earlier about the Indonesian Treeman here (and I haven’t quit itching yet!).

TLC also featured the Hensel twins, which is essentially a two-headed teenage girl. Video of that is below.