Did You Hear?

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic recently performed the first ever nearly total face transplant on a patient with severe facial deformities. The patient received 80% of a donor's face. (Her injuries were so horrific that she lacked a nose and palate, and could not eat or breathe on her own without a special opening into her windpipe. So this was much more than just someone who wanted a little work done...)

A face transplant.

A face transplant.

It is the first facial transplant known to have included bones, along with muscle, skin, blood vessels and nerves. The woman received a nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw and even some teeth, said Dr. Frank Papay, the clinic's plastic surgery chief.

"This patient exhausted all conventional means of reconstruction, and is the right patient," lead surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow said at a news conference. So many disfigured patients are stuck "in their houses who are hiding from society," afraid to go out, she said. "Our patient was called names and was humiliated. You need a face to face the world."

So she got a face transplant. How cool is that? I just get chills every time I read a story that seems so sci-fi. The future is here, folks!

A face transplant. Huh.