A Long Walk To Freedom: The Boy Of A Hundred Faces
Donation protected
Updated 3/23/25*
My medical journey started about 29 years ago when I was 9 years old. It has been quite an adventure, and as of January 2019 I have been "fully" medically disabled. Slowly, I have lost everything...including my apartment and my car. I am carrying $23,000 in credit card debt but if I declare bankruptcy I won't be able to purchase a home for 10 plus years, no matter my income. Until my temporary Section 8 voucher is approved, I have been homeless since August 2024, sleeping indoors only by the kindness of a dear friend. Unfortunately, I've been asked to leave the space by the end of April, and my life currently depends on staying within 45 min of Boston in case of emergencies. To better explain where I am now and where I've been, please see the letter I most recently sent to my Facial Plastics surgeon addressing the ongoing process of rebuilding my collapsed face. I've also posted below the link to some of the many faces I've worn since we commenced in January 2024. If I can survive long enough to turn the tide, and regain my wings to be present for work as soon as I can stand up, I can provide for myself and cover rent moving forward...but I must complete my face first. Anything you can spare would be a huge blessing, and on my life I will pay it forward. All my love, and don't forget to dance today ❤️
**Link to my rebuild archive (photos and video), viewer discretion advised**
Dear Dr. Austen,
I realize your time is extremely precious, as is the time of every member of your staff, so I will do my best to be brief. First, I need to clarify in real time, for myself and my lawyer that I've had on stand by for many months now, what exactly led me to canceling my own surgery on Tuesday 3/4/25, something no patient of yours has ever done. Furthermore, it was not planned. I made the excruciatingly difficult executive decision in the bathroom of day surgery after grounding myself in prayer, after arriving to the hospital late yet again on one of the most crucial days of my twenty eight year medical adventure because the exact same contractor from MART that I had previously reported for their same performance on January 29th was going to be thirty minutes late for my pick up...
I wanted to wait to send this message until after I got my blood work back from my IGG appointment this morning (3/6/25), so I could confirm for myself that my blood has "stabilized" after loosing 10 points off my hematocrit in a 14 day period in the last six weeks. Something is very wrong with my body, and I have been bleeding from the face on and off since June 5th (but now it's so bad I can't really go out in public), when a contaminated screw was used to tether the cadaver bone in place. In addition, the surgery I had with Mass Eye and Ear, where badly designed and placed nasal stints led to the corrosion of tissue, a reaction sequence I self reported immediately upon waking from anesthesia, arguing to be kept for three days when I was supposed to be sent home same day, and then with my father watching marched myself over to the ER at MGH upon discharge to see your on call team member...
Put in motion a chaos tornado that has ultimately pushed my body to the point of collapse. Even after you discovering what I was complaining about was very real on December 9th, we still have yet to stabilize the infection extremely close to my brain. Believe me, the only thing that will stop the bleeding, is enough air flow and drainage to irrigate the tissue and help my body over come the toxic saturation of bad bacteria in the microbiome of my sinuses and nasal tissue. I am severely under weight. I am a skeleton. I weigh 124 pounds now, wearing shoes, sweatpants, a shirt, and sweatshirt, confirmed this morning in my chart at weigh in. I am a soon to be 38 year old male that stands 5'8. My body, for many reasons, was too weak to withstand my 9th round of full anesthesia in 58 weeks, and only I given my vitals were "stable" could make that call...
One of those rounds of anesthesia was for an "emergency bronchoscopy" with Dr. Tsukada, to finally prove once and for all my trachea is in remission and I never had Pemphigoid, despite being hospitalized twice since we began the facial rebuild for blockages of my airway, a phenomenon I have documented with both you and Dr. "B", with pictures, that ultimately led to the bump up of the sinus recreation and stint placement surgery at Mass Eye and Ear. The "pemphigoid" I don't have, led the Brigham to shut down my immune system with Rituxan right before COVID, putting my body and life at extreme risk. Then, when that failed, the only solution that was offered for the suffocation episodes that almost killed me several times and led to many emergencies with Dr. Tsukada over the last five years, was to give me full blown chemo, or Cytoxan, which would have sterilized me and at least temporarily taken my hair. Only Dr. Ahmed, an Independent consultant of mine said...
"If you have that therapy it will kill you, you won't make it a year." So you see, I'm a little upset. And you have noticed first "Spock Logic", then desperate tears, and then finally, building rage. Please know, I now finally understand. And I don't actually blame any of my doctors. I actually admire you, you're kind of my personal heros. Now, because I'm not exactly stupid myself, I am fully aware of the Sex Scandal that will likely bring MGH/Brigham to its knees. In conducting research being my own Dr. Watson, I have confirmed with hospital staff on all levels of the establishment, they had no idea what's coming until it popped up on the news very recently. This is why Brigham and Women's and Mass General unleashed a flurry of construction, and is now overwhelming every doctor with a patient load that puts their licenses at risk. They are expanding their Animal Farm to take in as much profits as they can to offset the 200 plus women that will get settlements, and there is no set price of compensation for rape of that nature...So, if I personally sue...
I'm not coming for you, or your staff, or Dr. "B", or any other doctor of mine. I would actually be doing it to protect you. Perhaps, if I win and start a separate GoFundMe, I can buy out the smoldering ashes of a once proud institution through my non-profit Catalyst Productions, and hire some of y'all to run the place yourselves, as it should be. Let's see if you can get me stable first...
Now about the Ketamine. I will be meeting with my prescribing doctor to determine exactly what has happened to me since getting my FDA approved prescription last week, after a year plus of trying. It was supposed to be my salvation, and instead, derailed me temporarily. In the meantime, I am fasting from all Ketamine use, even though I'm in excruciating pain and my mental health is suffering...I have been in therapy since August and have been updating them in real time to all of this. I need to be added back to your surgical schedule for your next available. I am doing everything I can to add weight and cleanse my body of all contamination. I have backed up all my medical records and correspondences since the beginning of my adventures with first Mass Eye and Ear, then the Brigham, then MGH and they are safely in the possession of my lawyer. Should anything happen to me during surgery, or if I get hit by a bus, he will tell my story...
To the Boston Globe, and then on behalf of my two sisters, he will sue what's left of that conglomerate for everything he can. My relationships with my parents has died because of this, they trust y'all more than they trust me so I'm an addict and a junkie. My sisters at least, deserve compensation. Now, I am facing being out on the street in the next eight weeks without a section 8 voucher, despite being fully disabled for six years. When Dr. "Y" gave me his word he would start me before the fourth of July 2023, and then proceeded to gas light me until his retirement, I took him at his word and got an apartment in Jamaica Plain so I could report for active duty. I took out a loan against my car to survive. Then, Dr. "C" did the same. Discussed our surgical plan, and then strung me along for months before getting cold feet and ultimately refusing to do anything but a prosthetic. That would not have guaranteed airflow and would not have solved the real problem...
As Dr. Maxfield can testify, this was about the ticking time bomb in my head, not appearance. I thought I'd made that clear when we first met. So, I have a therapy appointment tomorrow after another day of IGG, and then I'm going to rest as much as I can this weekend. I look forward to a response about what I can expect for our next steps. Again, you are and will remain my hero, unless you are unwilling to make time for me. I would have really appreciated just five minutes when I was sitting downstairs during surgical time you had dedicated to me, waiting in the ER where they refused to even take blood work, while I was visibly bleeding and had just missed a surgery because "we don't do that hear". I had to bring myself back to life as my friend watched. It won't be long before this carnival ride costs me some.of them too. To clarify, MGH plastics cost me almost seven months of rent outside the fourth most expensive city in the United States for absolutely nothing...
Unless people donate to my GoFundMe I have running, I will not be available much longer to continue our work together, and it will only be a matter of time before the tissue dies, and I will be in even more danger than I am right now. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely, Ian Hunter Keene-Babcock
*This is why kombucha helped save my life, I have had $24,000 plus in dental work and root planning/scraping to attempt to retain my teeth. I have been told I will inevitably lose at least my top four front teeth, and will not be able to bite an apple by age 60 at best. https://www.lifehackguru.com/vsl/teeth
*And this is my new Bible:
Organizer
Ian Keene-Babcock
Organizer
Bedford, MA