A man whose face bones grew too big because of a rare condition known ‘lion face syndrome‘ needed surgery to chip off parts of his skull.
The patient known only as Suresh, from Tamil Nadu in the south of India, was given the operation for free by generous surgeons.
To have the condition this severe is extremely rare, Suresh’s doctor said, and there are thought to have only been a few cases ever documented.
Suresh spent half his life living with the condition after it began when he was 18 years old, until he desperately began seeking medical help 20 years later.
It caused his jaw to swell painfully large and his cheek bones became huge and protruded sideways out of his face.
The bridge of his nose was also left smaller by the condition, while his eye sockets were deepened because of the build up of bone around them.
He had lived a normal life until he was 18 years old and signs of the condition began to appear.
Lion face syndrome is so named because, untreated, it is thought to give patients a face similar to that of a lion.
The condition cannot be stopped and can only be treated by cutting the skin to expose the overgrown bones and chip away at them.
Thanks to his surgeon, Dr Sunil Richardson in Nagercoil, a city at the southern tip of India, Suresh’s face is now completely transformed.