US docs perform their first face transplant

Surgeons on Wednesday described the first face transplant done in the US...

Surgeons on Wednesday described the first face transplant done in the US, a painstaking 22-hour operation to stitch most of a dead woman’s face onto a recipient so horribly disfigured she was willing to undergo the risky surgery in the hopes of being able to smile, smell, eat and breathe normally again—- and go out in public without frightening children.

In a procedure done in the last two weeks, the 30-member Cleveland Clinic team replaced about 80 per cent of the woman’s face — essentially recreating the entire middle portion including her lower eyelids, nose, cheeks, and upper jaw, along with the supporting bones, muscles, nerves and arteries.

The operation, transferring everything except the upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin, marks the first time the controversial procedure has been performed in North America and the most extensive face transplant yet.

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“I’m very proud and emotional today to share with you what we finally did,” said Maria Siemionow, the reconstructive surgeon who led the team. “The patient is doing well… I must tell you how happy she was when with both her hands she could go over her face and feel that she has a nose, feel that she has a jaw.”

No details about either were released, other than a statement from the recipient’s family. “We never thought for a moment that our sister would ever have a chance at a normal life again, after the trauma she endured,” the statement said. “There are tears of joy, and tears of pain that it took one to pass for one to have a life.”

Other experts praised the operation, saying it was a prelude to many similar surgeries to help thousands of patients mutilated by accidents, tumors and other trauma. When the first partial face transplant was performed in France on a woman who had been mauled by her dog, the news set off an international firestorm.

Despite a difficult recovery, the first recipient, Isabelle Dinoire, gradually regained normal skin sensation and control of her facial muscles and has reported that the operation transformed her life.

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