LIVER PILLS CHANGE SKIN COLOR

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Liver pills turn black man white

A black man who was given tablets for liver disease has won £15,000 after they turned him white.

The skin of Tekeste Kahsay, 59, has turned white, except for a patch of skin across his face.

Mr Kahsay, originally from Eritrea but now living in Sweden, says he feels like a black man trapped in a white man's body.

Mr Kahsay was badly injured as he worked at a sawmill in Lidkoping. Blood tests revealed the first stages of liver disease which could have proved fatal.

He was prescribed a drug which saved his liver but had astonishing side effects. His skin became increasingly light until he was white except for a dark "mask" on his face and ears. He has been shunned and attacked because of his strange appearance.

He said: ''This is terrible. I disappeared. I was a black man inside and a white man outside. My self-confidence is gone."

Mr Kahsay won £15,000 from a medical tribunal, The Mirror reports.

The doctor who treated him is reported to be off work with severe psychological problems. In Mr Kahsay's homeland, he is shunned as a leper, as white pigment is considered a sign of the disease.

He added: ''I am a black man and will always be a black man but I don't know who I am. But I have learned a lot about intolerance towards people of another colour.''