by Sheila Aidukas
On May 2nd, Connie Culp, the first person in America to receive a face transplant, came forward in a press conference to show the world her new face. The surgery was done back in December. Connie had been shot in the face by her husband about five years ago. She has gone through about 30 surgeries since the incident (prior to the face transplant) to try and recreate the missing portion of her face, but she had no nose and could not use her mouth. She couldn’t eat solid food, and she couldn’t smell or taste. She even had to breathe through a hole in her throat. Now she can do all of those things normally.
Connie Culp, before the shooting. (left). Connie Culp, before and after the face transplant. (right)
More, including video, after the break.
In order to do the facial transplant doctors had to remove scar tissue bone grafts and metal from previous surgeries. 80% of her new face is from a donor. She has bone, muscles, nerves, skin, and blood vessels from a woman who had died several hours before the transplant began. Connie’s body has only shown one mild episode of rejection to date and it was treated and there have been no problems since. When doctors performed the transplant they gave Connie a lot of extra facial tissue because they figured that some would be rejected. None has been rejected however, so they will do a few minor tucks in about 5 months to get rid of the excess skin. In time, facial nerves will regenerate in Culp’s face and muscle movement will be restored to the donor tissue and she will be able to smile and show emotion again! Connie was completely healthy before the transplant, so the ethical issue of it was a big deal in the scientific community. Why do such a dangerous operation on a healthy individual? But as some scientists argued, most people who receive transplants do so because an organ is failing. When they go into the operation, their body is not healthy, and there for recovery is greatly slowed down. Connie was healthy going into the operation, so she is recovering very successfully.
The procedure was very costly (200,000 -300,000), but because it was experimental, Connie’s medical bills are not as high the procedure will cost in the future (close to a million). I wonder if most trauma victims would be able to afford it?
Not to be negative but, what will happen if her body later goes through an extreme episode of rejection? Will she die?
I truly think it is amazing that doctors were able to restore somewhat of a sense of smell and tast through organs that were transplanted.
Here is a link to a pdf on how they did it: http://blog.cleveland.com/pdgraphics/2008/12/18cgface.pdf
And here is the website I go the information from:
http://www.cleveland.com/medical/index.ssf/2009/05/face_transplant.html
| Face transplant recipient Connie Culp revealed at Cleveland Clinic |
