Vol. 187, Number 73© 2017 Detroit Free Press Inc., Printed in the U.S.

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A RAINY DAY Rest of the week? PerfectFORECAST, 2A

78 61High Low

SHIP’S AHOY!

Vintage raceboats get theirday again atBelle IsleMETRO, 4A

POLITICSGovernorsgive revisedhealth careflat reaction NATION+WORLD, 3A

WHAT A BURGER!There’s no oneway to make agreat burgerLIFE, 1D

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Mike Imbrunnone and DianeWade enjoy the show.

Bridge.............2LBusiness..........1BCorrections.....2ADeaths .........20AFree Press editorials ......15ADetroit Newseditorials......24AEntertainment .1E

Horoscope...5DMi Best Life .1DLottery.........2AMetro..........4AMovies.........8EPuzzles .....2-3LReal Estate ...1FSports ..........1CTravel...........6E

INDEX

7MUST-VISITBARS OFTRAVERSECITY ENTERTAINMENT,

1E

CALVIN-IZED

In December 2016, TimMcGrath laced up his skates andslowly began padding himselfwith his hockey gear: shoulderpads, a chest protector, elbowpads, protective gloves, a helmet— equipment athletes don toshield their bodies from poten-tial trauma on the ice.

Previously, McGrath, wholives in Sterling Heights,wouldn’t have given the task

much thought. It was part of thehockey rigamarole, somethinghe learned to do at age 11 as a pre-caution, without much thoughtabout why — like putting on aseat belt in a car.

This winter morning, howev-er, the skate session was differ-ent.

It was McGrath’s first time onthe ice in two years, and the daywas anything but an after-thought. It was planned withmeaning and intention, finely fo-cused on the then-37-year-old’s

safety, body and, most notably,his resilience. This day woulddemonstrate how much a gutsyand compassionate surgeon atBeaumont Hospital, KongkritChaiyasate, had been able tohelp McGrath overcome whatseemed like the impossible: theloss of his human shield, the skinon his face.

For three years McGrath hadbeen battling cancer. There hadbeen sleepless nights, stressfuldecision-making, dispiriting

THE FACE SAVIOR

JUNFU HAN/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate greets Charlotte Ponce, 14, of Spring Lake before explaining her latest surgery to her and herfamily at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Charlotte’s face was disfigured by a raccoon when she was a baby.

Beaumont plastic surgeon takes on what others saidcouldn’t be done, gives patients new life

By Allie GrossDetroit Free Press

See FACES, Page 10A

Editor’s note: This is the first installment ina three-part series exploring the 1967 Detroitriot. Today’s story looks at the building ten-sions leading into the riot. Next Sunday, the50th anniversary of the start of the riot, theFree Press will look at the five days of vio-lence that tore apart the city beginning onJuly 23, 1967. The following Sunday, we’llexplore the aftermath of the riot and its long-term effects on Detroit.

In May 1967, Jerome Patrick Cavanaghwas Detroit’s young, white, vigorous,New Deal Democrat mayor. He had a

glowing national reputation but an increas-ingly unhappy police department and agrowing number of frustrated black constit-uents.

The cops wanted higher salaries. Theyprotested with a ticket-writing slowdownand, later, a “blue flu” strike in which 20% ofthe 4,380-member force called in sick oneday in June, a stunt that put a nervous cityfurther on edge.

The mayor was forced to take the unusualaction of going on local television to defendhis officers.

“The police, obviously, are doing theirjob,” Cavanagh said. “And doing it well.”

Not everyone thought so. About 200 lead-ers in Detroit’s black community debatedthat month filing a lawsuit against the policebecause of constant complaints from resi-dents about brutality and the failure of thedepartment to take black crime victims seri-ously.

Detroit

TOM VENALECK/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Kids sing to Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, who wasIrish, in March 1967 in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

City’s blackcommunityreached abreaking pointPolice harassment fueled anger;officials thought progressivereputation would curb unrestBy Bill McGrawDetroit Free Press special writer

See DETROIT ’67, Page 8A

Simmering tensions

A campaign to once again tryto fully legalize marijuana inMichigan is getting big supportfrom a Washington D.C. nonprof-it activist group and from a tobac-co store company that has talkedof opening a chain of marijuanashops in the state.

The donor list, revealed in the

latest campaign finance state-ments filed by the Coalition toRegulate Marijuana Like Alco-hol, alarmed critics who havelong contended that marijuana’snationwide march toward legal-ization is being funded not by theidealistic stoners and medical-marijuana users long linked tothe politics of cannabis but in-stead by a pack of profit-mindedinvestors and corporate typessaid to be similar to Big Tobacco— the nation’s cigarette and cigarindustry.

“It’s obvious that these tobac-

co guys are making a play for themarijuana money,” Jeff Zins-meister, executive vice presidentof Smart Alternatives to Marijua-na, based in Alexandria, Va., saidFriday. The group argues that BigMarijuana is “following the play-book of Big Tobacco,” hoping toget young people addicted to pot

Mich. pot campaign attracts diverse donorsCritics are worried overBig Tobacco’s influence

By Bill LaitnerDetroit Free Press

See POT, Page 12A

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COVER STORYw

chemotherapy, tests, crowd-funding campaigns and lots ofuncertainty. While McGrathkept up hope through it all, in2015 his faith was tested. Fol-lowing a radical surgery to re-move the thriving tumor,McGrath’s body reacted nega-tively. While the growth, whichhad gotten so big it sproutedfrom his mouth, was gone, sowas the entire left side of hisface. The former electricianfound himself with a gapingwound — his brain and skele-ton exposed.

Superficial aestheticsaside, the situation was dan-gerous and risky. McGrathwent from having a face swol-len from a disease within tohaving a face completely ex-posed, susceptible to diseases.Infections became common.Surgeons, afraid of failure orworsening the situation,backed away. Death was ac-cepted as inevitable.

But then, Dr. Chaiyasate en-tered the picture.

In any other century, sur-vival from a tumor this aggres-sive, that had progressed sofar would have been impossi-ble. However, with modernmedicine and a creative doc-tor, McGrath was able to notonly survive the tumor resec-tion but, through a series of op-erations, his wound wasclosed. Chaiyasate not onlysaved McGrath’s life, but hegave him motivation to trulylive it.

It’s why on a mild Decem-ber morning, eight months af-ter Chaiyasate first operated,the guy who thought the endwas near was back on the ice.

In the summer of 2013,McGrath began to feel discom-fort in his jaw. He visited thedentist a few times thinking hehad TMJ, a fairly commonjoint disorder, and was fittedwith various appliances. Whenthe pain persisted, McGrathcontinued visiting physicians.Finally, in January 2014, sixmonths after the pain started,a doctor suggested an MRI. Bythe end of the day, McGrathlearned he had synovial cellsarcoma, a rare form of softtissue cancer that is typicallycaused by DNA mutations. ForMcGrath, the malignancyformed a tumor on a joint nearhis upper jaw, directly behindthe cheekbone.

“It was unbelievable be-cause Tim’s whole focus on lifewas very health oriented, heworked out, he ate healthily,”McGrath’s mother, KathyMcGrath, said. “He was just aprime example of everythingyou do right.”

In a matter of moments, thefamily’s life had been flippedupside down. How would theyproceed? How serious wasthis?

Originally, McGrath madeplans to have the tumor re-moved. An ear, nose and throatsurgeon would resect the tu-mor. Chaiyasate was then rec-ommended to do the follow-upreconstruction. But McGrathdecided to try alternativesfirst.

“At that time the surgerysounded horrific, they wouldhave had to cut all the nerveson that side of my mouth,break my jaw in half and re-move my zygomatic arch to ac-cess the tumor. It was deepwithin my jaw,” he wrote in arecent Facebook post explain-ing why he decided to exploreother options first.

Over the course of 18months, McGrath tried allsorts of remedies to shrink thetumor. There were supple-ments, infrared saunas, medi-tation, therapy, rounds of radi-ation and a trip to Brazil tomeet with a spiritual healer.

The efforts were importantto McGrath, who credits themfor helping him learn abouthimself and get in touch withhis spiritual side. But they ulti-mately failed to dissolve thetumor.

By June 2015, the once-small bulge on his left cheekhad blossomed. The tumor wasnow overtaking both the insideof his mouth and the outside ofhis face. His breathing wascompromised and he requireda tracheostomy and feedingtube.

“When the tumor started toexpand outside of its confine-ment, that’s when we knewsomething had to be done,”Kathy McGrath said.

Her son’s original fear of aradical surgery paled in com-parison to the new reality thathad taken over.

On October 25, 2015, TimMcGrath went in for radicalsurgery at Henry Ford Hospi-tal. Nine days later, the opera-tion went awry. McGrath’sbody rejected a skin graft andin response, his carotid arteryexploded. While doctors wereable to save his life, an openwound, with no nerve function,remained on the left side ofMcGrath’s face. The skeletonwas visible, his left eye wasgone, his brain was exposed,only protected by a gossamer-thin membrane known as themeninges.

He was without his humanshield — his skin — the anthro-

pomorphic version of thehockey protective gear.

In addition to leavingMcGrath susceptible to infec-tion, the condition seemed, formany, irreversible. To fix theproblem would require notjust the transplant of new skin,but the rerouting of manyveins.

For many surgeons, a casethis complicated raised redflags.

Chaiyasate was not one ofthem.

Born in Thailand, the 42-year-old came to the U.S. in2000 for general surgery resi-dency at Providence Hospitalin Rhode Island.

With nothing but two bagsof luggage and $3,000 that hismother had given him, the doc-tor said, he came for the Amer-ican dream. A fastidious artist,who had always been nimblewith his fingers, Chaiyasatesaid he thought about variousmedical paths, but ultimatelyrealizing he had a gift bestaligned with surgery. Narrow-ing down the surgery field be-came obvious while Chaiya-sate was at Providence andstudying under Dr. Ian Jack-son, a plastic surgeon known

for his work helping individ-uals with facial deformities.

“We become doctors for areason, we want to help peopleand I subsequently discoveredthat I have a special gift. I canhelp people with my hands,”Chaiyasate, the father of four,said. He noted that plastic sur-gery often gets lumped in withmore superficial procedures,like Botox injections, but alsohave the opportunity to trans-form lives.

During his career, he hasworked on cases ranging fromgunshot wounds to the face, tochildren with deformed cleftpalates. The cases are intri-cate and often require multi-ple operations, as has been thecase with Charlotte Ponce, ateen patient of Chaiyasate,whose face was disfigured by araccoon.

While each situation is dif-ferent, Chaiyasate feels a dutyto help bring some normalcyback to the lives of his patients.

“Many of my patients weretold things could not be donefor them, so I have a responsi-bility when I look at a patientwho comes to me hopeless,”Chaiyasate said. “Should I beanother one that says, ‘I can’tdo it. It’s not my problem’ or,should I take on a difficult caseand try to help them?”

McGrath’s case was as com-plex as they come; Chaiyasate,however, knew he had to takeon. “If not me, then who?” hethought to himself.

In May 2016, McGrath un-derwent his first surgery withChaiyasate.

There were four more be-fore McGrath’s open woundwas fully closed and the doctorfelt confident sending him outon the rink. Since then, therewere three more with the lastsurgery in April, at whichpoint Chaiyasate was able toremove McGrath’s tracheosto-my.

A feeding tube is still inplace since a portion ofMcGrath’s mouth remainsblocked. Because of this, healso struggles to speak, rely-ing on written communicationto get his thoughts out. Chaiya-sate, however, believes thatwith consistent speech thera-py, McGrath should be able toverbalize his thoughts moreclearly again.

The doctor also is recom-mending McGrath take a yearoff of surgery to let his bodyrecuperate and adjust. Thesurgeries used tissue from dif-ferent parts of McGrath’sbody — such as his thighs,forearm and forehead — andChaiyasate wants the tissue tosettle.

“I want to make sure thereis no repeated trauma and wedon’t cause any harm,” Chaiya-

sate said. “We accomplishedour first goal and closed theopen wound. He can now go iceskating and enjoy life.”

It’s news McGrath and hisfamily had been waiting on foryears.

“There was a time whereTim did not see himself as hav-ing a future, and gratefully heis at a time in his life where heis planning for his future,”Kathy McGrath said, notingthat her son is working to builda portable house that he cantake on speaking engagementswhen he regains his speechagain.

“We’re just so lucky thatthis amazing surgeon is closeto home,” she later added.

Time is now being spentthinking about what the futurehas in store — what can be ac-complished.

While skating is off the ta-ble for a bit — surgery in Feb-ruary used skin from TimMcGrath’s forehead, making ithard to wear a helmet — he isworking out at the gym, get-ting ready to hit the ice again inthe fall.

“It felt great to be able tofeel the glide of the ice undermy feet again,” McGrath saidin a text, noting he can’t wait todo it again soon.

JUNFU HAN/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Tim McGrath of Sterling Heights practices with his golf simulator in his garage. McGrath’s head is being repaired by Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate.

JUNFU HAN/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Tim McGrath with his parents, Kathy McGrath and Greg McGrath. TimMcGrath had a tumor that attacked his face and skull.

SALWAN GEORGES/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate walks with Denis Chubanyuk, 5, and his mother,Elena Chubanyuk, during a checkup visit at Beaumont Hospital.

FACES: Physiciantakes tough casesFROM PAGE 1A

“Many of mypatients were toldthings could not bedone for them, so Ihave a responsibilitywhen I look at apatient who comesto me hopeless.” KONGKRIT CHAIYASATE,Beaumont Hospital plastic surgeon