[UPDATE: See Dallas Wiens with his new face.]
In a milestone procedure, a team of more than thirty doctors and nurses at a Boston hospital has performed the nation's first full-face transplant. Dallas Wiens, 26, was working at a construction site in Texas in November 2008, when his face was burned off in a power line accident.
In the 15-hour surgery, led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, Weins received an entire face complete with nose, lips, muscles and nerves and skin. The operation at the was the first of its kind in the U.S., and only the second attempt in the world -- doctors in Spain performed a full face transplant last year on a man who had accidentally shot himself in the face.
A provision of the new health care law made the operation possible by allowing Wiens, who had no insurance at the time of the accident, to qualify for the expensive procedure and medicine, under his father's health care plan.
The operation took place at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. BWH has a long history of transplant firsts, dating back to 1954, when Dr. Joseph Murray led the team that performed the first successful kidney transplant. Murray was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990.
In the video below, Wiens talks about the accident and his desire for a new face.
In a statement released this morning, Dr. Pomahac wrote that "there were no complications. He's doing great, and he's right on the mark with expected progress."
Wiens' grandfather, Del Peterson, issued a statement on behalf of the family, thanking all those who had helped Dallas along the way to the surgery, as well as the anonymous downer and his family. Peterson added, "Dallas intends, once he is able, to become an advocate for facial donations so that you and your team can continue to perform miracles for others like Dallas."
