Isabelle Dinoir, a Frenchwoman, died this week after undergoing the world's first face transplant in 2005. After living for 11 years after the transplant, she died of cancer. The disease was provoked by immunosuppressants (these drugs suppressed the rejection of foreign tissues). In addition to Dinoir, more than 20 other patients were transplanted into the face. Only one of them did not have a face, and he died. The rest of the operations were recognized as successful.
Man Without a Face
In the fall of 2008, 24-year-old American Dallas Vince was renovating the roof of a Baptist church. Accidentally he touched a high-voltage wire with his forehead. Seconds later, the handsome young man's face turned into a bloody mess. The eyes, eyelids, nose, eyebrows, cheeks, teeth have disappeared. Vince was taken by helicopter to the hospital, surgeons fought for his life for 36 hours.
Dallas was saved, but there was no way to regain his facial features. The doctors put him in a coma to ease his suffering and continued treatment. Dallas was in a coma for three months. Two months after waking up, they let him go home. He could not walk on his own for another year. Dallas was completely blind, breathing only through a tube and could not eat solid food. But the man had a powerful incentive to live - Dallas had a daughter. So he started looking for doctors who could bring him back to normal.
In early 2011, doctors at a Boston hospital suggested that Dallas undergo an operation, during which he would be transplanted the face of a deceased man. The US Department of Defense agreed to pay for the operation. For 15 hours, a team of 30 doctors led by Doctor of Medicine Bogdan Pomogach conjured over Dallas. The fair-haired guy turned into a brunette looking like an Italian. The efforts were not in vain. Dallas's little daughter Scarlett, seeing her father after the operation, exclaimed: "Dad, you are so beautiful."
Dallas Vince remained blind, but now he can feel the touch on his face, can eat, smile, drink water from a glass, smell flowers on his own. This means that the facial muscles and nerves have successfully engrafted.
Initially, doctors prepared for the worst, knowing that tissue rejection reactions during face transplantation are quite common. At the same time, there is no hope for the restoration of vision.
Promotional video:
Soon a blind, but very impressive man, wearing dark glasses all the time, fell in love and got married. The second time (he broke up with his first wife before the tragedy). Jamie Nash, his sister in misfortune, became his chosen one. They met in a rehabilitation center in a psychological help group. The woman's hands were disfigured by burns after she had an accident. Jamie was driving, distracted by texting and crashed into a pole. The car caught fire, but people who were nearby came to the rescue and pulled her out of the car. Jamie had more than 20 surgeries, thanks to which she remained alive.
“I didn't think I could love again. It seemed to me that all feelings were in the past, and who needs a worthless blind man, - so Vince said.
And his fiancee replied:
- You are my eyes, and I am your heart.
16 years of seclusion, and then on the cover of GQ
At 22, Richard Norris - with big eyes and regular features - was handsome, popular with girls and loved to hang out. In 1997, he accidentally shot himself in the face with a gun when he wanted to move it to another location. The face literally exploded - fragments of the jaw, lumps of lips and tongue, chunks of cheeks were everywhere. Doctors miraculously saved Richard from death.
For 16 years, Richard lived as a recluse. He was ashamed of his ugliness. The man hung up the mirrors, as if he had buried himself alive. He went outside only occasionally - in a mask and under the cover of night. He either just walked the streets or went to the store for alcohol. Over the years of hermitage, he almost drank himself, trying to drown his grief in a bottle. Several times the parents pulled the man out of the noose. After getting drunk, he tried to hang himself.
Richard's mother did not lose hope of returning her son to a normal life. She found the right doctor. A team of surgeons led by Eduardo Rodriguez from the University of Maryland Medical Center performed a unique operation that lasted 36 hours. Richard has a new face. And soon he saw his new self in the mirror for the first time. He was watched by 21-year-old American Joshua Aversano, who died in a car accident.
“The only thing I wanted to do when I saw myself in the mirror was to hug my surgeon,” Richard said.
All facial functions were restored. Now he knows how to smile, chew properly, and smells. In 2014, the American magazine GQ took it off for its cover.
Children are no longer afraid of their father
Patrick Hardison from the American city of Sanatobia worked as a firefighter. In 2001, he ran into a flaming trailer (caravan for a car) to rescue a woman. He pushed her out into the street, but he could not get out quickly. The fireman's mask began to melt. When Patrick finally escaped from the fire, colleagues pulled off his mask. To their horror, it turned out that Patrick's face was left almost skinless.
The firefighter lost his ears, lips, most of his nose and almost completely his eyelids. It's good that then, in the trailer, he thought to close his eyes and hold his breath - this allowed him to avoid damage to his eyes and respiratory system.
For 14 years, Patrick underwent more than 70 operations, but it was not possible to return his face. Instead, there was a smooth skin surface with small slits for the eyes. When the man first returned home from the hospital, his three children ran away from him in horror. He tried to joke. "I was bitten by a bear!" - he said and portrayed the beast. But the children still did not want to take on the new look of their father.
The man became depressed. Scaring your own children - what could be worse? After a while, his wife Chrissy, with whom they had been married for ten years, also broke down and divorced Patrick. He was left alone with his grief.
A meeting with surgeon Eduardo Rodriguez from the Maryland Medical Center changed everything. The doctor agreed to have a face transplant on Patrick. The donor was found quickly - it was 26-year-old David Rodebough from Brooklyn, who died while walking on a bicycle.
The operation took 26 hours and involved over 100 doctors, nurses and technicians. The once red-haired guy with large almond-shaped eyes got squinted eyes and dark hair and eyebrows.
Both the doctors and the patient were delighted with the results. The tissues took root, and Patrick began to grow hair on his head for the first time in 14 years. He is optimistic about the future. For a year of healthy life, he managed to take the children to Disneyland, start personal training with a trainer in the gym, and get back behind the wheel of a car. He goes to restaurants, swims in the pool and feels good.
Russian patient
In 2015, a face transplant operation was performed for the first time in Russia. The patient's name is still a mystery. In the press, the young man is called Nikolai E. It is known that in 2012 he served in the army, where he received a strong electric shock. The soldier burned out 65% of his face, injured his neck and arms.
He was taken to the Military Medical Academy. Kirov in St. Petersburg. There, surgeons performed 30 operations, trying to restore the disfigured face. But it became clear that donor tissues were indispensable.
The donor was a deceased resident of the Kursk region. The operation lasted 12 hours. It was held at the Kirov Military Medical Academy.
The tissues successfully took root, and, as reported, Nikolai quickly recovered. The head of the department for the organization of scientific work and the training of scientific and pedagogical personnel of the academy, Yevgeny Ivchenko, said that some operations may be required to correct cosmetic defects, but in general, the patient is doing well.
Veronica Vorontsova