Breaking News
Gabriel's father, James Newcomb, will perform a benefit concert to assist with the fundraising campaign!
Click the image below for details.
About Gabriel
Imagine eating each bite of every meal, in the back of your mind fearing you may find yourself in the ER in just a few hours.
Imagine going about your business, and having suddenly having an uncontrollable urge to poop, and then seeing red in the toilet nearly every time you do.
Imagine missing days, weeks, and even months of school, your entire life upended because of this nagging condition.
Imagine every doctor’s prescription and recommendation having virtually no effect on your symptoms.
Now imagine you’re a witty and talented 12 year old boy, your entire life in front of you, and this is your reality for the foreseeable future.
Dear friend or family member,
In March 2026, Gabriel Newcomb was living his life the best he knew how, with his mother Troye Levin in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
He was looking forward to his upcoming trip to Minnesota to visit his father, James Newcomb, in just a few weeks.
Gabriel had been dealing with asthma for much of his childhood, but there had finally been some encouraging news. His doctors were reducing some of his asthma treatment, and it felt as though this long-running medical concern might finally be moving in the right direction.
Then, on March 11, Gabriel woke with pain near his backside.
He went to school, hoping it would pass.
It didn’t.
The pain was enough to cause severe discomfort by simply sitting down. He went to the school nurse, who in turn called Troye. From school they went to urgent care, where they waited for several hours. The medical staff knew something was very wrong, but they did not have the necessary information to diagnose or treat it.
Gabriel was given Tylenol for the pain and told to go directly to the emergency room. He was also told to not eat anything in the event surgery became necessary.
Gabriel and Troye waited and waited at the ER on what hospital staff described as an unusually busy night filled with trauma cases. As the clock approached 1 am, with several patients still ahead of him and no clear indication of when he could be seen, Troye finally took an exhausted and hungry Gabriel home, fed him, and brought him back first thing the next morning.
This time he was seen quickly.
But the ordeal was only beginning.
Gabriel spent the day in the emergency department, again told to not eat as surgery was imminent. Yet an operating room could not be made available for Gabriel, so he was admitted to the hospital overnight.
Gabriel finally underwent surgery to place a drain in a massive abscess in his backside, which remained in place for one week.
Antibiotics followed.
So did prednisone, a steroid prescribed to ease inflammation.
So did a reality centered around painful, messy, and exhausting bathroom visits.
Gabriel feared using toilet paper, lest it cause more unbearable pain.
Each meal was filled with uncertainty with how the digestive system would handle it.
The planned spring-break trip to Minnesota was canceled.
The doctors knew the abscess was not the whole story.
A gastroenterologist was brought in, and Gabriel underwent both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy.
And then came the diagnosis which changed the landscape of his childhood:
Crohn’s colitis, more commonly known as Crohn’s disease.
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel condition caused by a misregulated immune response in the digestive tract. Crohn’s patients typically experience chronic pain, diarrhea, bleeding, fatigue, and malnutrition, among other symptoms.
And sadly there is no known cure for Crohn’s.
The best-case scenario in treating Crohn's is remission: reduce the inflammation, control the symptoms, and keep the disease quiet for as long as possible.
For Gabriel, that has meant steroids and a biologic medication called Humira. He has been on and off the prednisone since March while also receiving Humira.
And the results have not been what the doctors had hoped.
The gastroenterologist proposed upping the dosage of Humira, and if that doesn't work, try another biologic medicine called Remicade, which would be administered by IV at the hospital every several weeks.
These are important medicines, and for many people with Crohn’s they can be life-changing.
But they do not cure the disease. They work in part by suppressing the immune response, and even when they work successfully, flare-ups can still occur.
For a twelve-year-old who is still growing, changing, and entering his teenage years, that uncertainty is especially difficult.
Gabriel has already missed more than two months of school between his former public school and the smaller private school he now attends.
But even when he's able to attend school, there's a measure of unease. Because with Crohn’s, “feeling fine” at 9:00 in the morning may mean feeling unwell come lunchtime and need to be taken home.
This can be difficult for other twelve-year-olds to understand.
Some children have wondered whether Gabriel is exaggerating or even faking his symptoms.
Others fear that a slightly raised temperature means he is contagious, and so they keep their distance.
These are not trivial matters for a 12 year old boy.
Gabriel is still Gabriel. He is witty, talented, curious, and doing his best to continue living his life.
But now there is an unwelcome question following him through every ordinary day:
What is my body going to do next?
Then an unexpected possibility appeared.
After months of medications, uncertainty, and recurring symptoms, Troye made a simple post on social media explaining why she had been unusually quiet.
Gabriel had been sick, and had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.
That was essentially all she said.
A longtime friend of both Troye and James saw this post and contacted her to let her know about a hospital in Thailand that works with patients suffering from autoimmune conditions and offers mesenchymal stem-cell therapy. This friend has assisted a number of others of all ages in receiving similar treatment for similar conditions.
But we're not talking about a visit to a hospital across state lines, or even within the United States.
We're talking about Thailand.
The country in Southeast Asia roughly the size of Texas, with a population of 71.6 million people.
Better Being Hospital, located in the capital city of Bangkok, has been treating patients with the injection of stem cells, and it is this treatment for which we are asking for help in order for Gabriel to at the very least mitigate his symptoms, which have been erratic for months and with no end in sight.
Stem cells are naturally found in the human body and assist with growth, tissue maintenance, healing, and the replacement of damaged or worn-out cells.
By introducing stem cells specifically selected for their therapeutic properties, the treatment aims to help regulate Gabriel’s immune response, reduce intestinal inflammation, and promote the healing of damaged tissue within his microbiome.
Stem cell therapy remains a somewhat fringe treatment in the United States, with a massive regulatory and financial burden to overcome to even be considered for the treatment.
But such treatments are not as highly regulated in countries such as Thailand. And after reviewing Gabriel’s medical records, BBH has determined they are able to provide treatment for Gabriel’s Crohn’s, with a very good chance it will yield positive results.
Now we're going to come right out and say it.
This treatment is not going to cure Gabriel's Crohn's.
What the treatment offers is a legitimate opportunity to reduce the inflammation, calm the misregulated immune response, promote healing in the damaged tissue, and potentially give Gabriel something he has not had in months: a greater measure of control over his own body.
There are no guarantees, nor is anyone claiming anything supernatural will take place.
But what we have is a very real possibility of Gabriel experiencing far fewer flare-ups, less pain, fewer medications, fewer trips to the hospital—and perhaps most important, less time sitting on the porcelain throne, judging the nations.
It goes without saying insurance doesn’t cover this treatment.
And even with the write-offs the hospital is able to provide, as well as a generous donor who has donated the stem cells from her umbilical cord from her baby’s birth, the costs are more than Gabriel’s parents can manage on their own.
And so we ask for the assistance of Gabriel’s family and friends, and anyone reading this letter who may want to help him return to the life of a normal, and very gifted, twelve-year old boy.
Gabriel’s treatment is currently scheduled to begin at Better Being Hospital in Bangkok on October 5 and continue through much of October.
The treatment plan includes the administration of stem cells along with supportive therapies, including sessions in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Because this is obviously not a trip to the local hospital, both of Gabriel’s parents plan to remain in Thailand with him throughout the course of treatment.
That means the financial burden extends well beyond the medical procedures themselves.
There is international travel.
Housing.
Food.
Local transportation.
And the ordinary expenses involved in maintaining a family thousands of miles from home while Gabriel receives his care.
All told, the amount needed for Gabriel’s treatment is over $43,000.
And while we are confident this amount can be raised through the generosity of those who care about Gabriel in a relatively short period of time, there is an urgency to having this treatment take place sooner than later.
When inadequately treated or poorly controlled, Crohn’s disease can lead to serious complications that may threaten Gabriel’s long-term wellbeing, and in severe cases can become life-threatening.
We prefer to not allow this to happen when there is a legitimate option to use something which is entirely natural, and administered by expert doctors who have done treatments just like this with children for over thirteen years with a remarkable track record of success.
The hospital and its staff would not have agreed to take Gabriel as a patient if they were not confident this treatment would benefit him.
And so now we ask:
Will you help?
If you are able, there are two ways you can contribute:
- Probably the easiest (but not tax-deductible) option is to contribute right here on GoFundMe.
- If you prefer to have your contribution tax-deductible, you may contribute to the Connecting Families ministry at this link: https://gabrielmicah.com/connectingfamilies
Any amount you can contribute will be most helpful and deeply appreciated by Gabriel and his parents.
It is neither natural nor comfortable to ask for help, but there are times when it is necessary.
This is one of those times.
Thank you, and God be with you.
James Newcomb and Troye Levin, on behalf of Gabriel