Man gets new face, hands in first such transplant

There is hope for burn-damaged body parts… hopefully all  parts… eh? Fathers, we can ‘recover’ our manliness if ravaged by fire. Read on.

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PARIS — In a world first, French surgeons have replaced, in a single operation, the face and both hands of a man horribly disfigured by an accident, the hospital where the surgery took place announced yesterday.

The 30-year-old recipient, on a donor waiting list for more a year, “had scars from burns to the face and hands so severe that it robbed him of all social life”, the hospital said in a statement.

The operation, which began on Saturday night, lasted 30 hours and required a medical team of more than 40, according to the Henri Mondor Hospital.

“It is a success, he is in good condition,” said one of the two head surgeons, Dr Laurent Lanteiri. “The patient is in post-op intensive care, which will last at least 15 days.”

Surgeons replaced the patient’s entire face above the lips, including the scalp, nose, ears and forehead.

Another team led by Dr Christian Dumontier, a surgeon at the Saint Antoine Hospital, replaced both hands, including the wrists.

There have been five other face transplants to date, three of them done in France.

- AFP

 

From TODAY, World

Tuesday, 07-April-2009