What? The most comprehensive face transplant to date, including jaw, teeth and tongue, on Richard Norris (pictured below, right), who had been shot in the face in 1997.
Where? University of Maryland Medical Center, USA
Why? Past patients would come to me and say: “What else can you do for me, doctor?” And I would say: “This is it. I can’t make lips for you and can’t have them move properly. I can make a tongue but it won’t feel like a tongue or be like a tongue.” So the patients sort of forced my hand.
How? I realised that when we transplant bone with the tissue, it seems to reduce rejection. I also saw that conventional methods weren’t going to work. Once I knew the time had come, we rehearsed tremendously. We practised on multiple cadavers and we did the donor and recipient operations as though it was real time. We tested it over and over. I wanted to be sure it was a viable option and not an experiment on a patient.
Highlight? Richard’s operation took 36 hours, but when I saw his face pinking up with blood vessels and saw the match of the skin it was incredible — the most remarkable thing in the world. Richard wrote me a note the other day. He said: “This is the first time I could taste the herbs in food.” Imagine living for 15 years and not being able to taste or smell anything.
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Whose shoulders? Joseph Murray — he kicked off the field of transplant surgery when he did the first successful organ transplant in 1954. It was a kidney transplant between identical twins and led to Murray winning a Nobel prize in 1990.
Who else’s? Paul Manson, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who pioneered titanium implants in maxillofacial surgery; and Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland Clinic. She did America’s first near-total face transplant in 2008. Eight surgeons, 22 hours.