Since 2005, 18 people have received face transplants. Some were partial and the first full face transplant was performed by doctors in Spain on March 20, 2010. I cannot even being to understand how this is possible, but doctors are doing it and with great success.
They revealed some of the details of these complicated transplants in the New England Journal of Medicine recently.
The first full face transplant in the U.S. took place in March 2011 when doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston treated Dallas Wiens. I was so saddened when I read Wiens story. He was painting a church when he accidentally touched some high-tension power lines. It looked like his face literally melted. He had skin covering his eye sockets, no nose – essentially all he was left with was a mouth. His face wasn’t necessarily gross, it was just gone.
It just astonishes me that doctors were able to give him a new face and other than a sagging mouth and dark glasses (which he wears because he was blinded), he looks like a normal guy. He may not look like he used to, but he can go out in public without people gasping at his looks.
The second patient, Mitch Hunter, had suffered burns as well after a power line fell on his car after a crash. The 30-year-old Hunter’s surgery, which was also performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, took 30 doctors and nurses and lasted 14 hours.
The third person to receive a full facial transplant in the U.S. is someone you may remember from the news. Charla Nash went to the aid of her employer Sandra Herold to help her get her chimpanzee Travis back in his cage. Instead, 200 pound Travis attacked Nash, ripping her nose, lips, eyes, and hands off while breaking most of the bones in her face. She was so badly disfigured that she wore a veil over her face. Since her facial transplant, Nash can now smell and chew food.
These facial transplants aren’t without issues. Every patient develops infections after surgery, but only two have died from it. One of those patients quit taking their immunosupressants, which must be taken for the rest of the patient’s life to help prevent rejection. But, in the case of Wiens, he regained his sense of smell and after only four months, could feel the right side of his new face. There are so some that question the ethics of these transplants. But, since it is hard for me to even imagine being as badly disfigured as these people were, I am find with the face transplants if it allows them to feel normal once again.
Finally, there are other heroes in this story other than the doctors and nurses. The families that are altruistic enough to donate a loved one’s face so these people can lead somewhat normal lives also deserve praise.