Real life Elephant Man

An astonishing real life Elephant Man has been studied by surgeons after he emerged at a clinic in rural central China.

Yang Huiming, 28, suffers from a rare condition with huge tumours covering his face, including one huge central 'trunk' over his nose and up his forehead.



The growths began with a small bean-sized lump on his left eyelid as a toddler and quickly spread all over his face, say medics at Military 304 Hospital, in Beijing.

Surgeons believe the growths are caused by a rare deformity of Yang's skull which causes facial tissue to constantly grow over diseased fibres protruding from the skull.



Now they plan to remove the damaged part of Yang's skull and replace it with an alloy plate to halt the constant regrowth of fatty tumours.

"All I want is to look normal. I hope and pray this will work," said Yang.