Freeman skinned up his neck, his head was covered in a white gauze blanket, and his left arm was covered with gauze bandages.
He had no pulse, no pulse.
His face was a blank canvas.
He wore an oxygen mask.
I just got the mask, said Dr. Robert Freeman, a medical director at The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Institute in Los Angeles.
It’s not the best thing to do, he told me.
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Freeman said.
Dr. Freeman, the chief medical officer of the King Institute, was referring to the mask that he wore while treating Freeman in the hospital, a mask that helped mask Freeman’s coughing.
Freeman’s condition, which was later confirmed to be bronchiolitis, is a life-threatening respiratory infection.
The mask, known as a puffer mask, was developed by Dr. Peter St. Louis of the New York City-based Dr. Bronchioliphyne.
When Freeman, a 29-year-old who was born with a congenital heart defect, developed a severe case of bronchial pneumonia, he was prescribed a pumper mask to help mask the airways and keep him breathing.
A nurse was the first to administer the pumper, but Freeman soon developed a cough that made it difficult to breathe.
The mask became a staple of his life.
In a series of tests, including an electrocardiogram, he also developed a mild case of pneumonia.
Freeman was transferred to the intensive care unit, where he remained for more than six months.
While he was on ventilator, he began coughing up blood, and he developed a fever of 101.
But his condition did not improve.
He developed pneumonia again, and was hospitalized for a second time.
Then, on March 16, 2010, Freeman suffered a cardiac arrest.
At the time, doctors were surprised by the rapid deterioration in Freeman.
He was in a medically induced coma.
And when Freeman was revived, doctors discovered a massive blood clot in his lung that had developed in his heart, the heart that was the primary source of his oxygen.
The clot was blocking his blood supply.
Freeman was transferred back to the ICU and placed on a ventilatory support, which is a tube that contains an air pump that pushes air through his lungs to help oxygenate the lungs.
But the tube was not working.
He became dehydrated.
He also lost weight.
Freemen’s condition worsened.
Doctors said that his heart function worsened, too.
On June 5, he died.
Doctors were surprised at the speed at which Freeman deteriorated.
His mother, Deborah Freeman-Johnson, said that after doctors discovered the puffer, they began to wonder if the mask had not been an important part of his recovery.
They wondered if the pump had not worked because they were afraid that the puffy mask would have stopped Freeman breathing.
Deborah Freeman said that her son’s life was over.
For many years, Freemen had worked in the beauty industry.
He started out with a salon in Santa Monica, Calif., and went on to open the first salon in California, Freespanas Skincare in Santa Ana, Calif.
Freemer’s mother, who is also a medical researcher, said she was devastated by the loss of her son.
Freemeins death brought a reckoning for the skincares industry, said Julie Boulware, director of the Skincares for Women’s Health and Health Policy program at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Many skincaring companies that were in the market for a new product to address the pandemic, she said, “started searching for other options to fill the void.”
The lack of a new treatment was compounded by the fact that the mask was not available.
Freemais death has sparked renewed interest in a new mask that is already in the works.
Several companies have recently launched pumper masks, including Freemens company, the Skinceuticals Company, and the L.A.-based Lush Skincar.
The company, Lush, has launched the Freeman mask.
Freemans company, Freemans, is in the process of launching a new version of Freemans mask, the Freemen mask.
But Dr. Freeman said he hopes that the new Freeman masks will not only help to combat bronchitis, but to combat pneumonia.
One of the reasons that Freeman became a pioneer of pumper therapy, Freeman said, was because he was the only person in the world who could put a pucker mask on.
Freespan’s mask was developed at the University of Southern