In 2001, a volunteer firefighter in Senatobia, Mississippi received severe burns to his face while performing his firefighting duties. It’s been a long wait for him, but 14 years later, he now has a new face, and the prognosis looks good. The patient, Patrick Hardison, now 41, still has a long recovery road ahead to gain full function of his new face, but by signing up for this operation, he not only received a new face, but he has moved the science of facial transplants forward significantly.
A surgical team at New York University Langone Medical Center comprised of more than 100 members performed marathon surgeries in order to complete this historic transplant operation, first to remove the face and some bone structure from the donor, and then to transplant the face to Hardison. The details of the surgeries were planned down to the minute, because of the extent of the surgery – it was the first time that anyone had attempted to transplant this amount of facial tissue.
An excellent article from the Live Science website provides the incredible details:
After his accident, Hardison had no normal tissue in his face, scalp, eyelids, nose or lips, Rodriguez said. Hardison had also lost his ears, the doctor said. Hardison wore a baseball cap, sunglasses and prosthetic ears to conceal his appearance, and because of significant scarring on his face, he experienced enormous pain when making facial expressions and chewing.
The operation began on the morning of Aug. 12, Rodriguez said. Two teams began working simultaneously, one team working to remove the donor face, and the other to prepare Hardison to receive the transplant.
Removing the donor face took 12 hours, Rodriguez said. The donor’s entire scalp, face and eyelids were removed, as well as some bones in the face and chin, which would help provide facial definition, Rodriguez said. In addition, the doctors identified important blood vessels and nerves that would need to be preserved and re-attached when the face was transplanted, he said. The surgeons paid special attention to the functional structures of the eyelids, he added.
The surgery to prepare Hardison to receive the transplant took 8 hours, during which time the team removed all of the scar tissue of Hardison’s face, scalp, eyelids and ears, Rodriguez said. It was important to remove all of the man’s scars and get down to healthy tissue, Rodriguez said.
The surgeons also removed some of the bones from Hardison’s face, because bones from the donor’s face would be brought in to replace them, Rodriguez said.
On the morning of Aug. 15, the two surgical teams came together for 10 hours of surgery, Rodriguez said. They attached the bones in the chin, followed by the bones in the middle of the face, he said. The surgeons then re-attached the blood vessels, so that new blood could flow to the transplant, he said. Next, the surgeons focused on the eyelids, followed by the lining of the nose and mouth, before completing the surgery, he said.
“From an overall standpoint, [Hardison is] doing great,” Rodriguez said. His recovery is going well and he has had no issues with tissue rejection, a major concern for transplant patients, Rodriguez said.
Hardison still faces many challenges, both physical and psychological, to overcome after his surgery. But Rodriguez told of one important moment, when he took Hardison to Macy’s to buy new clothes — Hardison became emotional when he realized that no one was staring at him, Rodriguez said.
So far it’s a great success story, and for more of the details, you can check out the amazing article on the Live Science website.
Source: LiveScience.com – “Face Transplants Move Forward with Most Extensive Operation Yet“
Featured Image Credit: NYU Langone