How The Recipient Of The First Full Face Transplant Looks [Medicine]

The operation took 24 hours and 30 doctors, but the first full face transplant appears to be successful. Here\’s how Oscar, the patient, looks along with his new face:

You can click on the image for a better look.

This image was taken during a press conference which marked the first time Oscar appeared in public since the face transplant occurred about four months ago. Earlier than the transplant, the patient could only breathe and be fed through tubes, but now he has \” a new nose, lips, cheekbone, lower and upper jawbone, palate, teeth, skin and muscles.\” Because of the those new parts, he is in a position to chat again-though still requires speech therapy-and is starting to eat liquids ad soft food without the help of a tube.

Along with happiness concerning the success of this operation, there look like a considerable number of concerns and jokes in regards to the potential dangers of full face transplants, but they\’re not necessary:

The 30-strong medical team, led by doctor Joan Pere Barret, was at pains to emphasise that Oscar\’s face would not seem like the face of his donor, but rather is an amalgam of the two. \” He absolutely doesn’t seem like the donor patient, and I suspect that\’s important for society to understand. On the subject of future donations of faces there is not any such danger of this.\”

So let\’s not fret about an old John Travolta and Nicolas Cage movie and instead feel free that this man has been given an opportunity at a somewhat better life than what he had before. [Fast Company]

Photograph by David Ramos/AP

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This post is tagged: face, HOW, looks, medicine, recipient, transplant