Texas man gets first full face transplant in US
Source: The Associated Press/ 3/24/11
While I was reading this article I was amazed about how much science has
evolved and improved through time. So much, that now doctors are able to
attach someone else's face to where ours used to be and make it work,
make the lips react when we want them to, for the eyes to be able to really
blink unconsciously, and for the nose to breathe in oxygen for the lungs.
The article talked about a man who's face was deformed in an accident, and
how doctors were able to perform a full face transplant for him to be able to
go back to "normal", well, as normal as a new face can be, but now he will
be able to feel.
I can't imagine how hard this surgery was for the doctors but also for the
man, I'm sure they told him different risks he could face if he went through
surgery like probably no response from the new face, or something going
wrong and he dies, but he still did it and the transplant was successful.
Also, it must have been really uncomfortable for the man at first, looking at
himself in the mirror and seeing a face he is not used to and that he is not
familiar with, if it were me, I would probably get scared for a few days the
first times I would look in the mirror in the morning. Also for his daughter
it should have been hard, to see a face that she isn't really familiar with
either, claiming it is her father must have been very weird for her at first.
This surgery will be revolutionary, I could imagine about 20 years from
now people talking about getting face transplants very normally because
they think they look ugly or they want to get rid of their so many wrinkles.
Like, nowadays they do nose jobs and all that, they will be doing face
transplants. But they won't only be used for beauty purposes, like in the
article, they will be used to save people from accidents especially for the
military which is what paid for the surgery, so that they could have
research done to help their men hurt in battle. I think this will save many
lives and also later on, when medicine and technology advances way, way
more, they might be able to attach legs to soldiers who lost theirs, or arms,
or any other body part, so that people could continue living their life as
normally as they possibly can.
I had the opportunity to have in a visit to the Hospital Militar in Bogota, I
learned how much these people suffer, but also, how much they need
support and people to be there for them, I met a man who had both his arm
and his leg amputated, of course the wound was there but as soon as we
walked in a smile from one ear to another appeared in his face and his eyes
lit up, and when he talked to us it seemed as if nothing had happened. I
remember they also told us there was a man who had stepped in a antipersonnel mine and had his whole face deformed, kind of similar to what
happened to the man in the article, but I didn't visit him.
Reading this article made me remember my experience at the hospital and
once again taught me how grateful we have to be not only because all our
organs and body parts are working perfectly, but because we don't have to
go through the stress of loosing your face, or a leg, or an arm.
After reading the article I wanted to find out more information about face
transplants and about their risks. So I found some information in
HowStuffWorks and the article is called How Face Transplants Work. One
thing I found interesting was that it talked about how the person's face
would end up looking like, I thought that the person having the surgery
would end up looking more or less exactly like the donor, but it turns out
that because of the face structure and other factors, the patient actually
looks like a combination of him/herself and the donor. It says that some
risks are infection and excessive bleeding, even the medicine taken to
prevent rejection come with risks like people are more likely to develop
diabetes, kidney disease, infections and cancer.
I also watched a video interview with the man, Man Shows Off First US
Full Face Transplant and noticed that it was much worse than it seems
when you read the article, because when you read it you think like "Oh
poor man, he suffered a lot but now he's fine" but you just think it, you
don't see how bad it is. With the video you can see how he was before and
how he is now, the change is incredible, but you also notice that he is not
yet perfect. He can talk but not as well as he did before and he is blind. It
also makes you understand the situation better, how the family felt, how he
should have felt and how successful the transplant was.