ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A man who lost his nose after a near-fatal infection is sharing his story in hopes of helping others.
As a teenager, Ted Baumgart of Chili loved motocross and he was good at it. He took several spills over the years, breaking bones and was often prescribed opioids. Before long, his passion for the sport played a part in his addiction.
“They were selling them (pills) for too much, I didn’t have the money… everybody was like, “oh yeah use fentanyl” they talked about how much cheaper it is and it’ll get you through a lot longer,” Baumgart recalls.
So, eventually he turned to the streets to get drugs. “It only takes one moment, and it’ll ruin your life, it ruined mine, it took me in a totally different direction than I wanted to go,” Baumgart says.
Baumgart ended up getting an infection from street drugs that led to sepsis. “I went to the hospital, and everything turned black, my nose, my ears, part of my hands,” he recalls. While his ears and hands recovered, he lost more than half of his nose.
That happened nine years ago, Baumgart has been in recovery since, but he hasn’t been able to afford the surgery needed to repair his nose, “they told me that it was cosmetic so the insurance wouldn’t cover it,” he tells News10NBC.
Baumgart says he has worked hard to stay clean since losing his nose but faces judgement every day for how he looks, “tired of getting bullied, everywhere I go, having people make fun of me, look at me, gawk at me and say things that I don’t appreciate. You try to brush them off but there’s only so long you can have thick skin and that’s kinda where I’m at,” he says.
When asked how he responds to people who say his situation is a consequence of his choices, Baumgart says, “I wish I could go back, but I can’t so I try to move forward and take one day at a time.”
Baumgart says he decided to share his story now in hopes it might help others, especially young people with big dreams, “if I can have one kid not pick up and use and decide not to use because of my story, it’ll all be worth it then,” he says.
For more information on Baumgart’s journey, click here.
Former motocross rider shares how opioid addiction led to fentanyl use, sepsis, and the loss of his nose WHEC.com.
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