Why is this being brought up ten years later? Because scientists now think they could do a face transplant. If you continue through the pictures to Jacqueline Saburido, you can see a candidate for just such a surgery.
I am simply amazed, really. To think that all of those sci-fi movies just might not be so far fetched after all… And to think what it could do to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.
Not a bad job on the little girl…though I should think that if she was handled in an american hospital they would have done follow up work to reduce the scarring…but given the uniqueness of the operation quite incredible!
Wow. Looking at the pictures, it’s amazing what can be done nowadays.
Considering the stories behind the pictures, it makes you realize just how quickly your whole life can be turned upside-down. Now matter how some part of your life may suck, it can always be a lot worse.
They say the hand transplant went horrifically wrong. This makes me think that the dead man’s hand started trying to strangle the amputee in his sleep or something.
I worked in a trauma unit in the early '80s where we did several “face replants” and facial reconstructions. The difference was each has at least a 1 inch intact attachment. The use of leaches and microsurgery helped advance the process.
Facial transplants are a completely different situation. In most cases a face can be completely reconstructed using the patient’s own tissue. The issues of rejection would be an added worry.
Widespread, full thickness burns might be the exception, as skin might not be available to do the complicated grafts necessary to form cheek pads, eyelids, chins and noses. Although, there have been great advancements in skin culturing in the past several years.
The image of the little girl’s neatly removed face lying on the table is utterly fascinating and repellent at the same time.
It would be great if this actually works. Hopefully it would be “saved” for the people who really need it (like the druk driving victim shown) and not some rich old hag who simply wants younger looking skin.
Not sure you can call getting it whacked off by a lawnmower as “neatly removed”… But well put otherwise. Fascinatingly repellent.
I was VERY hesitent to open that link. I’m not squeemish, and in fact frequent “gore” picture websites. I’m not proud of that, but I’m not going to lie about it. But faces getting peeled off really tweaks me out. That “Face/Off” movie actually creeped me out a bit.
IIRC the hand transplant recipient never liked the hand to begin with and did not take care of the hand or take his anti-rejection drugs. It is pretty different from his own limb so it’s easy to see why he never thought of it as his own.