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In an operation that lasted several hours, a woman who had lost her nose, lips, and chin in a vicious dog attack has received the world’s first face transplant. The controversial surgery was performed in France, and involved the tissues, muscles, and arteries from a braindead patient’s face.
This operation was the first of its kind in the world, and if the patient’s body doesn’t reject the skin, she will not look like she used to look, nor will she look like her donor, but somewhere in between. Hopefully she will also regain her ability to speak and eat properly, which she has been unable to do since the attack. But because skin is so prone to rejection, she will have to take high levels of immunosupressants for long periods of time, perhaps for the rest of her life. These drugs increase the risk of disease and cancer.
From the BBC article:
“And there is the possibility that the donor would then carry on breathing.”
Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, said: “The extent of facial expression which will occur in the long term is unknown.
“The skin tends to promote rejection by the immune system very strongly and immunosuppression is likely to need to be kept at high levels for prolonged periods of time.
“It is not clear whether an individual could be left worse off in the event that a face transplant failed.”
Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon’s facial transplantation working party, said: “If successful, this is a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction.
Following the operation, the graft appeared to be normal, but only time will tell.
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WoW
this is great news for all criminals…… you can do a crime and later get a whole new face. >_> oh how things made to better the good can be used to better the bad…..
Didn’t I see a movie about this? “Face Off”
Face Off
James Bond
Basically any scifi movie
yes, it’s been done before… in the movies!
This is amazing, but considering the price, the time, the recovery… why? I don’t understand why you put yourself through all of this (i.e. the situation of a normal person, not an injured person).
Or you could go through massive plastic surgery for the same effect and without the mess of immunosupressants.
Even the best plastic surgery available today would leave her looking pretty abnormal… this surgery potentially allows her to look somewhat normal again, which is important in a society that judges individuals so much on their appearance.
In today’s world what is normal … I just hope she pulls through from this great ordeal and live a happy life afterwards.
How much would it suck, if the person in intensice care, who’s face you took, just…woke up. A miracle, and wanted to see their sister ::their only relative:: who had not given up on her and allowed her her chance to recover…only to find ::dum dum duuuum:: that she was looking not at her sister…but herself….and once she undertood, SCREAMED for a mirror!
lol, but seriously, if this works its a major breakthrough.
-L.
Thats discusting!
Ah heck, you mean they can’t just chop her head off and put a robotic head in its place? Sorry for being disgusting. We sure do live in a “shallow” world.
Its been almost 3 years now… any updates Alan?