U.S. Woman Receives Face Transplant

First Almost-Total Transplant In Nation Performed By Team At Cleveland Clinic

(AP)  The nation's first near-total face transplant has been done on a woman at the Cleveland Clinic, the hospital announced Tuesday.

Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow replaced nearly all of the woman's face - 80 percent - with that of a dead female donor in an operation a couple weeks ago.

The patient's name and age were not released. The hospital plans a news conference Wednesday and would not give details until then.

The world's first partial face transplant occurred in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog. Two others have been announced since then - a Chinese farmer attacked by a bear and a European man disfigured by a genetic condition.

The nature of the injuries or disfigurement that prompted the Cleveland case are not yet known. Such transplants are controversial, because they are aimed at improving a patient's quality of life rather than saving it, and require recipients to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their life.

"It is very important what kind of recipient they selected," and how great the need was, said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, which plans to offer face transplants too.

"There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this," he said. "It's great that it happened. It is a major move forward. Hopefully it will open the door both to the public and to other centers" wanting to offer such transplants, Pomahac said.

Burn and severe trauma patients have long needed better options, but "the ethics are really controversial" for face transplants, said Dr. Jeffrey Guy, director of the Burn Center at Vanderbilt University.

For the doctors in Cleveland, the task now is balancing two medical risks: the need to give strong immune suppression drugs to prevent rejection, and managing the risk of infection increased by taking such medicines.

Rejection is a possibility whenever someone receives an organ or cells from someone else because the body regards this as foreign tissue. Two types of problems can result.

The first is graft-versus-host disease, which happens if the new facial tissue were to attack the body of the recipient (the host). The second is, if the transplant recipient's body were to attack the marrow or the transplanted face, causing inflammation and other problems at the site of the new tissue.

Either of these can be life-threatening. They can come on suddenly, within days or weeks of the operation, a situation called acute rejection. Or chronic, low-level rejection can set in and slowly undermine the recipient's health.

[courious2]

I need help! My only wish n life is 2 have my face fixed so I can eat,b pain-free,brush teeth, n get dental work. No 1 has been able 2 get my mouth 2 open. My current opening is 5mm & dropping. I was hit by a drunk driver n 1989. I suffer horribly every minute of every day.My family also has 2 watch me suffer everyday knowing they r helpless.I starve,lose weight, get sick from pain & malnutrition. I have had 13 major facial reconstructions & all have failed!I am unable 2 eat & this also poses as MAJOR life threatening situations. Think 5MM!.If I was ever in an emergency situation, I could not be saved. This is no laughing matter 4 all u jokersters above. Imagine it b-ng ur mother, wife, or sister & u have 2 watch them suffer! Would it still b funny? We can easily die.Please help me get some help, I am so desperate!

[mtminds]

This is one way to save face.

[scienceman1-2009]

Boy where do some of you come from - harsh wow! A face transplant is vary serious and only done on someone that has a HORRIBLE Disfigurement. The new face does not look like yoy and me - normal its just better than the Disfigured one.

[neonink]

There are many sad situations in life that can happen. This is not just a new face, but a new life and new hope again.

[mandalay-bay]

she got a dead person''s face. That''s creepy.

[generey]

HEY LADY, WHO THE HE11 ARE YOU??? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY WIFE???? STELLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[generey]

Now, this is why we haven''''t heard from Rowdy today!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by excoachken at 02:07 PM : Dec 16, 2008


Too funny! I needed that! ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!

[spadeisspade]

Trust me, if you saw pictures of the woman from France, you''ll realize that this is no plastic surgery. She still looked frightening, just less so. Also, you can''t exactly line up for any sort of transplant, let alone faces. People have to donate it upon death. It''s hard enough to get people to donate their organs, can''t imagine "donate your face" would be an easy cell.

[petro49l]

Reconstruction of the face with a transplant is valuable surgery. Doctors can work miracles in the operating room. Drug addicts have their sanity restored with modern, modified frontal lobotomies. Medical science has advanced beyond simple amputation.

[ajaxtheleast]

"Such transplants are controversial."?

Show me someone qualified to totally understand
the mental state of a person with a hidious
face or in some cases actually lacking
facial flesh then bring him around
with his objections.

[excoachken]

Now, this is why we haven''t heard from Rowdy today!

[mtminds]

It adds another dimension to the saying: put on a happy face.

[krannawitter]

Sorry, I can''t resist a few more puns....

How appropriate this made the ''headlines''. Though the story seems a little two-faced.

When asked if the surgery hurt, the woman replied "like a slap in the face". It was good to interview her face-to-face.

The woman appeared melancholy, and I asked "why the long face? .... oh yeah... nevermind"

and now my personal favorite for telling people about this story in chat...

:( - :)

[easeup-2009]

Will she need to change her Facebook profile now?

[kkcbs]

These posts are hilarious -- I bet even the lady that got the new face would grin from ear to .... OH, that''s the missing part!

[krannawitter]

Everyone nose we won''t see eye to eye on this. These types of transplants can be a miracle in the face of tragedy, however, many others can''t face the fact. It may be tongue-in-cheek to say, but those people really get under my skin. Sure, this comment may raise a few eyebrows, but take it at face value.

[puzzler125]

Okay, enough with the sick jokes which you will make anyway until something happens to you or a member of your family. Oh wait...you''ll still make the sick jokes if it''s not YOU!

[chyna16]

i know that some of you think this is funny and a play on words, but imagine putting yourself in that person''s shoes

[summarex]

I''d like a taller and skinnier face.

[citizenusa-2009]

Her first appearance will be on "Face the Nation", I''m sure.