INSIDE A FACE TRANSPLANT
After a self-inflicted gunshot wound left her son Cameron badly disfigured, Bev Bailey-potter set out to find him a new face – and a second chance at life
OOn June 26, 2016, just before midnight, Bev Bailey-potter got the call that every parent fears the most: Her 24-year-old son, Cameron “Cam” Underwood – a welder and machinist from Northern California – was in hospital fighting for his life. Earlier that evening, Cam, who’d battled depression since his teen years, had attempted suicide by shooting himself in the face. “I still wish it was a bad dream,” recalls Bev, 56. “The doctor said, ‘ Your son’s face is dust.’ We went into the emergency room and saw him. I was just in shock. The bottom of his face was covered up; he had his eyes, his forehead. We were told that he would not survive.”
Miraculously, Cam did survive – but his injuries left the once-active man reliant on a feeding tube and barely able to speak. “I had the opposite of hope at that time,” says Cam, now 26. “He could have continued to live like he did, but there was no quality of life,” says Bev. “I wanted him to have a life again.” Six months later, Bev found a way to give him just that. After reading a story in a December 2016 issue of People about a groundbreaking face transplant program at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, she booked an appointment with the program’s director, Dr Eduardo Rodriguez. Thirteen months after that, doctors found the perfect
donor match – including blood type, skeletal shape, and skin and hair colour – in 23-yearold Will Fisher, a budding New York City writer and filmmaker who died suddenly on Jan. 5, 2018 after battling mental illness on and off for several years. That same day, Cam became the recipient of a successful face transplant. “The biggest difference,” says Cam, “is just being able to go out without a mask and without people staring at me.” Adds Bev: “He had a beautiful smile – and he’s got a beautiful smile again.”
In the 10 months since the surgery, Cam has shown no signs of rejecting his new face. He’s able to eat, speak and grow facial hair – and he’s back to playing basketball and golf; he even went skydiving last May. (“Why not?!” he says.) “I look at him now, and I see the future,” says Bev. “Back in the hospital, I had a whiteboard for him so we could communicate, and early on [after the surgery] he took that whiteboard and drew two things: a pause button and a play button – and he circled that play button. He’s no longer on pause.”
The youngest son of pastor Randy Underwood, 63, and Bev, who was a legal assistant (they divorced in 2008), Cam grew up in Yuba City, California, where he shared an active lifestyle with his siblings, Julie, 40, Aaron, 36, and Brad, 28. But underneath the happy exterior, Cam struggled silently with depression, and by the time he was 23, he was relying on alcohol to self-medicate and bury his darker emotions. “I saw that he was struggling, he was unhappy,” says Bev. “But I never thought he would harm himself.”
On that tragic night in June, after a day of drinking, Cam placed a gun under his chin and pulled the trigger. He was airlifted from a local hospital to the University of California Davis Medical Center, where he was initially put in a medically induced coma, and then kept heavily sedated for the next five weeks. “When I woke up, I didn’t know what was going on, where I was, what had happened,” says Cam, who learned that he was missing most of his face below his eyes, including his nose, jaw and teeth. His tongue remained, and his eyes were intact, but the sockets were badly damaged. “I was shocked that I would actually do something like that, and that I had survived.”
“We kept the mirrors covered in the hospital until he was ready to see himself,” says Bev, who put her whole life on hold to be with her son every day. “I couldn’t go back to living my life because I was ashamed – not at what my son did but because I felt like I had failed my son. God gave me these children, and they were such a gift –I couldn’t let them down.”
Needless to say, adjusting to his disfigurement wasn’t easy. “Communicating was a big problem. I had to write notes. Just eating was a big mess – for as much food as I got into my mouth, just as much didn’t go in,” says Cam, who covered his injury with a bandana or mask whenever he was out in public. “It was a tough time.”
During his five-month stay in the hospital, Cam underwent three skin grafts in the hope of rebuilding his face enough so he could become a candidate for a face transplant. But by the time Cam was discharged on Dec. 2, 2016, they were still waiting for references, and no progress had been made towards starting the process. Fortunately, it was just a few weeks later when Bev, during the family’s annual holiday trip to Lake Tahoe, bought the copy of People – and read the story about NYU Langone’s face transplant program. “Kate Middleton was on the cover – that’s probably why I bought it,” says Bev. “When I read that article, I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something’.”
Cam and his mum met with Dr Rodriguez on March 15, 2017, and he
“He had a beautiful smile – and now he’s got a beautiful smile again” —Bev Bailey Potter, Cam’s mum
agreed to take Cam as a patient. “Many people ask, ‘ Why would we put so much energy and resources into someone who wanted to eliminate their life?’” he says. “But I’ve never felt that should exclude anybody from getting state-of-the- art medical care. Cam was a good candidate for this type of operation because he was willing to put that [difficult] part of his life behind him and move forward. And this was the only type of operation that was going to get his life back on track.”
But the surgery brought risks of its own, including just a 50 per cent chance that he would even survive. Still, says Cam, “It was either stay the way I was or take a chance on something better – on a bigger, better life.”
Eighteen months after that tragic night, Cam received the call from Dr Rodriguez, notifying him that New York-based organ donation agency Liveonny had found a match in Fisher – and he and Bev flew to New York. During the 25-hour surgery, a team led by Dr Rodriguez attached the lower part of Will’s face (including jaw, teeth, nose, cheeks and lower eyelids) to Cam’s disfigured visage. Seeing her son in recovery on Jan. 6, Bev says her prayers were answered: “He had a face.”
On Oct. 17, Cam and his mum were able to thank the woman who changed their lives: his donor Will’s mother, Sally Fisher. (Her son’s heart, liver, kidneys and eyes were also donated.) “I’m just eternally grateful,” says Bev. “From one mom to another, I feel this bond with her that I will carry forever because of the gift she gave my son.” The transplant is also helping mend the heartbreak Sally has felt since losing her son. “I don’t think I would have survived Will’s death if it wasn’t for Cameron,” says Sally, who openly shares her memories of Will as an accomplished chess player and budding writer and filmmaker. “Cameron’s got his whole life ahead of him – and I love the idea that Willie’s helping him have a better life.”
Indeed, Cam – who manages his depression through therapy and medication– is moving forward. “I just want to get back to work and eventually start a family,” he says. Adds Bev: “I got my son back. And I feel so blessed that he can now live a normal life.” If you or someone you know need help contact Lifeline on 131114 or lifeline.org.au