Written by Hazel Halliburton
The first ever full-face transplant was performed Monday, March 21, in Boston Mass., at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dallas Wiens, 25, a construction worker from Ft. Worth, Texas, was injured in a power line accident while working in November 2008. The accident left Wiens blind and his facial features burned away.
According to Yahoo News, the surgery was performed by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who also led the surgery medical team made up of 30 doctors, nurses and other staff members. Wiens, with the help of the 15-hour operation and an unidentified donor, received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves.
The donor was chosen based on his race, gender, age and blood type. Although the surgery will improve Wiens’ condition, Pomahac said that his eye-sight will likely not be restored and he will only have partial feeling in his left cheek and forehead.
“Fifteen years ago a face transplant was science fiction.” Wiens said to ABC News. “What’s going to happen in the next 15 years? I’ve got a lot of life left.”
The U.S. Defense Department has given the Brigham and Women’s hospital a $3.4 million research grant for five facial transplants. Only about a dozen face transplants have been done worldwide; this is being the third in the U.S. The second one was at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
At the time of the accident, Wiens was not covered by insurance, MSNBC reported, but with the new federal health care law he will be covered by his father’s insurance until May, when Wiens turns 26. He is then expected to be covered by Medicare, which will help pay for his medication. He will have to take medication for the rest of his life to help keep his body from rejecting the facial transplant.
Ronda Reely, a clinical associate at Harding University, said that she could see facial implants becoming an ethical issue in the future if people started having them for cosmetic purposes instead of reasons such as burns and disfigurements.
“For a burn victim, it’s a wonderful thing,” Reely said. “It gives them their life back.”
She added that for a victim such as Wiens it gives him the ability to enjoy the little things again − kisses on the cheek, being able to eat and speak more easily.
Wiens said he wanted to be able to smile again and feel kisses from his 3-year-old daughter, Scarlett. “For a patient like him, I say, ‘Go for it!'” Reely said.
His daughter is trusting that things will be all right. “Daddy has a boo boo,” Scarlett said. “But God and the doctors are making Daddy’s boo boo all better.”
