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Every once in a blue moon a person touches your heart and forever transforms your perspective
on life, while tackling medical challenges the average person could never fathom. Billy
Crawford offers that sort of inspiration.
He meets difficulties with courage and optimism. When a fungal infection ravaged his face after
chemo left him defenseless, he miraculously survived. Then went about restoring his physical
features all the while touching everyone in his path through his positive outlook in the
face of daunting obstacles.
Listen as Billy tells his story.
BILLY: May the second. I can remember getting out of bed that morning.
From that part that'll move forward about 3 and a half weeks. That I don't know nothing.
When my wife, my mama and my sister and my wife got me ready and took me to the hospital.
And when we got there, they asked my wife, do you want to put him on life support?
VERMA: Because his immune system was compromised due to his chemotherapy, he contracted a fungal
infection. His wife actually had documented pictures that was over the course of about
4 and a half hours that he had lost that degree of the soft tissue of his face.
BILLY: But somehow, by the grace of God, they give me the right stuff to stop it.
When the doctors came in and told me that I had just a very short time to live. Because
of my face was black, from the center of my forehead, all the way down here.
In fact, when I woke up, a doctor that had been doctoring on me for six months before
this, he came in my room and he introduced himself. And I said, you don't have to introduce
yourself to me.
He said, what? And I said, you don't have to introduce yourself to me, I know who you
are.
And he said, have I doctored on you before. And I said, yeah about six months ago. And
I told him, and he looked at my chart and said, Billy Crawford! Oh, me. He said, what
has happened to you? And I said, I don't know.
And he said, have you seen yourself in the mirror. I said, no. He said, I don't think
I would if I was you. Because I'm afraid you're going to go into a deep depression.
The kept me in the hospital as long as they could. And then they moved me to rehab.
And went home. And my dermatologist, he called a couple or two, three days later. And wanted
to know how I was. He figured I was dead.
And Lois told him, said, he's in there watching TV. And he said, what!? And Lois said he's
in there watching TV, he's alright.
VERMA: He is a wonderful man. And in this field we get to build relationships with patients.
Its not just one appointment. Its numerous appointments that you build trust with each
other, and you have one on one time in appointments that last 3 to 4 hours.
And he has been an inspiration to all of us in the clinic, and his wife and family support
he has is amazing.
So we all had to work as a team to really find the best way to give him a facial prosthesis.
There are many innovations now using rapid prototyping, navigational surgery and other
digital design software that would be able to help us in our preoperative planning. To
Give the patient the best outcome.
And due to the prosthesis size, we would hope to use implant retention.
Our first step would be to plan the best location for those implants.
SCHOW: Well, we had a challenge. This is a photograph of the patient, probably taken
about a month after the implants had been placed.
And our object was to try and get 4 implants above the eyes, in what we call a super orbital
position. 4 on the lower orbital rims, and 2 around the base of the nose.
So if we had tears, which are essentially just a salt water solution, draining down
around our implants, we could get a soft tissue reaction that could cause the implants to
fail.
So, Suzi had to plan for the drainage, some way to collect those tears, and keep them
away from the implants.
Probably the best thing of all is the patient's attitude, and his family's support, both of
which have been just incredible.
VERMA: Everything was planned virtually. And the first time I had to take a clinical impression
was after his implants had completely healed.
On the last stages over the last two months was when I created the prosthesis.
We paired his CT data from the CT he acquired prior to losing his face with his other CT
he had prior to surgery.
And by manipulating those two data sets, we worked with engineers from a company called
Medical Modeling to create a prototype, then duplicating it and bringing it into the clinic.
So there's a lot of one on one time you spend with the patient.
The retentive components of the prosthesis is really magnets that are embedded in an
acrylic substructure. Those have been embedded into the wax sculpture so that I can snap
it directly onto the patient and sculpt on them.
This allows them to be able to move around, we can look at it from all different angles,
and they can give me their feedback.
After you have a mold created, it is then addressing the color.
I'll do a color session with the patient. We had about 16 different intrinsic colors
to create, matching all the different colors that are found in our skin.
And those are then painted into the mold, intrinsically in layers, down to every freckle
and blood vessel and age spot that may be found in his skin characteristics.
Afterwards once the silicon has been cured in the oven, it comes out as a flexible silicon
prosthesis. Color is then added on the outside, and all of the hairs from the eyebrow and
the mustache were then inserted individually or sewn in.
So recent technology has really enhanced his treatment, but I think all in all the success
of his treatment is based on his wonderful positive attitude, and the faith he's had
through everything.
It's really not just a physical adjustment, but an emotional adjustment. And we started
that emotional healing in the very beginning. So not only did he have to adjust to losing
his face, but also gaining one again. And that it is a prosthesis, something he still
takes off every night when he goes to bed, and puts it on in the morning.
BILLY:I want to be able to drive my car to town, and get out and visit some of my old
buddies. And go out to church. And I want to do testimony in the church for what God
has done for me. And I want to get back in life again.