First Face Transplant in US led by Polish Surgeon

CLEVELAND — Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers.

In a 23-hour operation, transplant surgeons have given nearly an entire new face to a woman with facial damage so severe that she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said here on Wednesday.

The highly experimental procedure, performed within the last two weeks, was the world’s fourth partial face transplant, the country’s first, and the most extensive and complicated such operation to date. Dr. Maria Siemionow led the surgical team, which took turns at the operating table so the doctors could rest, sleep and share expertise.

polishcanuckThreads: 10 Posts: 583 Joined: Feb 11, 07	Edited by: polishcanuck Dec 21, 08, 15:37 / #
CLEVELAND — Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers. In a 23-hour operation, transplant surgeons have given nearly an entire new face to a woman with facial damage so severe that she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said here on Wednesday. The highly experimental procedure, performed within the last two weeks, was the world’s fourth partial face transplant, the country’s first, and the most extensive and complicated such operation to date. Dr. Maria Siemionow led the surgical team, which took turns at the operating table so the doctors could rest, sleep and share expertise. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/health/s18face.html?_r=1&hp Dr. Siemionow's bio: http://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff_directory/2/Staff_1735.aspx Press Conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxnxizBRUY

Lotnik767Threads: 6 Posts: 210 Joined: Nov 12, 08	Dec 23, 08, 10:13 / #
And Dr. Maria Siemionow is a Polish doctor she is from Poland! That was an amazing surgery, just imaging how far we have come along in Medicine and look how it will improve in the future!