Dallas Wiens, a Texas construction worker is in the recent news after receiving first full face transplant of nation last week. Dallas Wiens was undergone in the 15-hour surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston to correct severe burns on his face. According to reports, 25 years old Dallas Wiens is in good condition and recovering from the surgery but it takes long time similar to any transplant receiver.
Image source: www.msnbc.msn.com
Nation’s first full face transplant was done by a plastic surgery team of more than 30 healthcare professionals, including physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses, and residents. Dallas Wiens’ facial areas including skin, nose, lips, and muscles of facial animation, and nerves that move areas of the face, was replaced to provide feeling. Dr. Bohdan Pomahac led the team.
Wiens has perceived his dream come true by getting his full face transplant. Dallas Wiens lost his face in a tragic electrical accident in 2008. In November, 2008, he hit some power lines and received a tremendous shock when he was working in a cherry-picker lift back to paint a church. This accident leave him in a state of coma for three months and his eyes, lips, nose, were melted and all of his face became disfigured.
While the doctors can graft the skin on his face by taking the skin from other parts of his body but they could not rebuild the complete face. A donor, who was not named, donated facial skin, a nose, lips, muscles, and nerves to Dallas Wiens for the face transplant. It is being expected that this full face transplant will be successful and Wiens will be able to begin a new life.
According to doctors, Wiens is progressing, he is walking, he has awoken fully and chatted on the phone with family but he stays in the hospital. He will be eating soon it is expected by doctors and he will get back most of the feeling of his forehead and cheek on the right side but the cheek and forehead damage on the left part was more severe so it will get less recovery on the left side. The surgical team was not capable to restore his vision.
As per the doctors, Dallas Wiens’ post surgery appearance will neither look like himself nor the donor. In December 2008, the first partial face transplant surgery was performed at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States. In that 22-hour process of transplant, 80 per cent of the face of Connie Culp, who lost most of the midsection of her face to a gunshot in 2004, was recovered. According to government health records, in 2005, the first successful partial face transplant of world was performed in France and in 2010, the first full face transplant was done in Spain.
Video of World's First Full Face Transplant from youtube:
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