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The plot of the film “Faceless” with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta no longer seems to be something of a fantasy, because the transplant of persons became possible more than ten years ago. However, over the years, technologies have improved, and doctors decide on more and more complex operations. However, the case of the American firefighter Patrick Hardison, who was badly burned during the fire fighting in 2001 and literally lost his own face, can be considered the most advanced and audacious transplant.
A team of doctors from the Langon Medical Center at the University of New York set a goal to completely transplant the face of a 41-year-old firefighter. In this case, the patient was planned to transplant not only the face, but also the ears (including the ear canals), part of the facial bones, nose, eyelids (including the musculature responsible for their movements), as well as the scalp with the donor's hair. The donor was the artist David Roudbach, who died at the age of 26, having an accident while riding his bicycle. David voluntarily bequeathed his body as a source of donor organs, so the transfer of his face to another person was carried out on all legal grounds. His heart, liver and kidneys also saved the lives of several people.
A team of more than 100 doctors, nurses and support staff was involved in the most complicated operation. The project was led by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery named after Hansjörg Wiss. The operation lasted more than 26 hours, and was preceded by a whole year of preparation, during which Patrick Hardison went through 70 different skin restoration procedures, which were supposed to simplify the work of surgeons as much as possible during a future operation. The operation cost the University of New York one million dollars.
Patrick regularly carried his fire service until, in 2001, the burning roof of one of the buildings collapsed onto it. As a result, the firefighter’s face, head, neck and upper torso were completely burned. He lost his eyelids, ears, lips, hair, eyebrows and almost completely lost his nose. Dr. Rodriguez, having heard the story of Patrick, decided by all means to return the man the opportunity to look at himself in the mirror again without a shudder. The operation was carried out in August 2015, but its results were made public only now.
When designing the operation, a variety of advanced technologies were used, including computer 3D modeling and 3D printing, with which the surgeons printed Patrick’s and the donor’s head models for themselves to calculate all the necessary actions as accurately as possible. Three months passed before Patrick could leave the hospital walls. He still takes special medicines to prevent the rejection of foreign tissues, and also undergoes a course of rehabilitation therapy in order to learn how to talk with other people's lips.
“I express my deepest gratitude to my donor and his whole family,” Patrick told reporters in an interview. “Despite the fact that I don’t know them personally, I pray for them every day, knowing what a difficult decision they made to help me. I would also like to thank Dr. Rodriguez and his entire team for giving me something more than a new face. They gave me a new life. ”
The article is based on materials .
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