We have a beloved patient by the name of Chad, who suffers from a very rare disease called Trichoepithelioma. It is a genetic disease that causes the body to grow cysts at a very rapid rate. In Chad’s case this results in multiple cysts all over his face, some very large. Chad is a 33 year old man and has suffered with this for a very long time. He came to Dr. Finn through a wonderful banding together of doctors wanting to help Chad and get him in the right hands. Dr. Finn has performed many procedures such as cyst removal, dermaplaning, and scar revisions on Chad all pro bono. The results have been remarkable, but the transformation we have seen Chad go through is even more amazing. He first came to us barely able to hold his head up and look anyone in the eye and had been going through life this way for a very long time. Now he smiles ear to ear and holds his head up very high!
Although Chad has seen incredible improvements in his skin the cysts keep coming due to his condition. Dr. Kenneth Becker decided the best thing for him would be to put him on Accutane a drug commonly used to treat severe acne, to stop the rapid growth of the cysts. The cost of the generic Accutane is $400 a month, an expense Chad cannot afford. We contacted the manufactures of the drug to see if they could help in any way but they could not. We spoke with the friendly pharmacists and neighbors at Kerr Drug in East 54, they gave us the contact information for the Kerr Drug Corporate office. They were very touched by Chad’s story and wanted to help in any way possible. They agreed to sell Chad the generic Accutane at cost willing to take no profit whatsoever! Chad and his family were elated as well as all of us at FFP! However, even at cost though the drug is still a high expense for Chad and his family. Thankfully we have been able to use donations that have come in to the FINN Foundation from all of our wonderful patients and the community at large to help him with this expense. Chad has been on the generic Accutane for 5 months now and it is working exactly as planned, it has slowed the growths of the cysts dramatically! However, he will need to stay on it for quite a bit longer to get long term results. We see Chad every month when he comes to Kerr Drugs to fill his prescription and our whole office stops to marvel at him, now it is hard to even picture the incredibly shy scared young man who walked into our office almost 1 year ago. We hope everyone who hears Chad’s story will be inspired and want to help contribute to the cost of his medications so he can get ahead of this disease and live his life to the fullest!!
His story is uplifting yet Chad has suffered much hardship growing up with this disease. He has experienced a lot of discrimination when trying to find a job due to his appearance, which has been very difficult for him and he speaks about it in the interview with Caitlin Coyner that aired on ABC on July 19, 2012.
You can watch the newscast right here: