Plactic Surgery - Human Face Transplant

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Source :health.discovery.com

Watch and learn as we walk you through the stunning new medical advancements in face transplants. Not only will you meet the plastic surgeons involved in face transplants, you'll also see some amazing before and after pictures of the patients. See their tragedy and their accomplishments as highly-skilled medical surgeons use their plastic surgery knowledge to perform ground-breaking face transplants.



Above: A family photo of nine-year-old Sandeep Kaur before a grass-cutting machine completely amputated her face and scalp. The machine caught one of Sandeep's braids and then pulled her head in. Sandeep's mother, who witnessed the accident, said: "I didn't know where her face was. Everything was peeled off."



Sandeep Kaur's face arrived in two pieces at a hospital in India where it was replanted onto her skull 10 years ago. "Looking at it, I said: 'Is it possible to do anything at all?'" said Sandeep's doctor, Abraham Thomas, one of India's top microsurgeons, who was on duty when Sandeep arrived at the hospital unconscious with her face in a plastic bag. "It was actually quite a frightening sight," said Dr. Thomas. "The first response was 'Oh my, God, I cannot do that (reattach her face).'"



Sandeep Kaur after her groundbreaking face replant. Although they didn't realize it at the time, Sandeep's doctors were making history. Sandeep's operation is considered the world's first full-face replant. It has inspired a team of doctors in Louisville, Ky., to attempt the first human face transplant.



Sandeep Kaur aged 19, 10 years after the accident that ripped off her face and nearly claimed her life. Today, Sandeep is training to be a nurse. Says Sandeep: "I think God had to have sent Dr. Thomas. It was such a big tragedy." Her miraculous surgery has begged the question: If it's possible to attach one's own torn-off face, is it possible to transplant a face?



John Barker, a research scientist and the man behind the team of U.S. doctors who plan to attempt the first face transplant. "Hopefully we can dispel some of the myths that are out there … of face transplantation. This is not a Hollywood movie. This is science," says Barker, who is among the many doctors inspired by Sandeep Kaur's face-replacement procedure.



"We've now transplanted heart, liver, lung, pancreas, bone, skin, nerve — so why aren't we doing it on the face?" asks Joe Banis, a top reconstructive surgeon in the United States and part of the human-face transplant team. Banis, 56, is renowned for his ability to rebuild faces, including that of a man who lost part of his face after falling 45 feet from a construction crane and skewering himself with an iron rod.




Transplant surgeon Nadey Hakim (left) was part of the surgical team that transplanted the hand and forearm of a dead man onto amputee Clint Hallam. Anti-rejection drugs tricked Hallam's body into believing that the transplanted tissue was the same as his own. "There is no doubt that it was a historical day," recalls Hakim. "We saw the history happening in front of our eyes."



Clint Hallam's newly transplanted hand and forearm. The 14-hour operation highlighted the possibilities for other cutting-edge transplants, including a face transplant. More than two years later, however, the pioneering operation went disastrously wrong. Hallam asked surgeons to remove the hand.




Jacqueline "Jacqui" Saburido before being hit by a drunk driver that left her face permanently disfigured. The car in which Jacqui was riding caught on fire, causing third-degree burns to 60 percent of her body. The majority of people burned as badly as Jacqui die.




Jacqui Saburido after being hit by a drunk driver. To date, Jacqui has undergone more than 50 operations. Doctors have tried to reconstruct Jacqui's eyelids, nose, mouth and neck. "But really for me, if I can do a face transplant that will be wonderful, but it depends on how many positive or how many negative things," Jacqui says. For complete rehabilitation, Jacqui would need a total face and scalp transplant. That would mean a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs with side effects that include a higher risk of cancer and diabetes. There's also the danger that a new face would be rejected, requiring Jacqui to undergo difficult skin-graft operations. To learn more about Jacqui, go to her www.helpjacqui.com.



Surgeon Marshall Strome risked his medical reputation by giving patient Tim Heidler a larynx transplant. Recalled Strome: "I said to my wife: 'If this fails, people are going to say I was nuts for the rest of my life.'" But Heidler, whose larynx was crushed in a motorcycle accident, was determined to have Strome do the operation. Heidler told Strome that — like facial disfigurement — losing his voice was like losing his identity. As he spoke through an electrical larynx, Heidler told Strome: "No one will ever appreciate what it's like to talk like this."



Three days after the operation to replace his crushed larynx, Tim Heidler (shown here talking through an electrical larynx), spoke his first words in 20 years. He said: "Hi, my name's Tim Heidler and the day today is January 21st."