Face transplant for dead people

Liver transplantation, kidney transplantation, even hand transplantation, these complicated surgeries have become a normal thing. What about the face transplant ? Imagine that the patient will carry a nose, mouth, even the face of a dead person. Controversy erupted, but a transplant like that has just been completed in France.

Grafting nose, lips and chin

This is the first face transplant in the world, ending the insidious but fierce race among researchers of the three countries, England, France and the United States. The patient is an anonymous 38-year-old woman living in the town of Valenciennes, in northern France. In May, she was bitten by a dog tearing her face, taking her nose, lips and chin. Since then, she hardly speaks and cannot chew. What made her even more distressed was her demonic face. So she agreed to enter the operating room in this historic surgery after a long time talking to the psychiatrist.

All tissues, muscles, arteries, veins, and skin needed for a transplant are taken from a brain-dead donor. This is also the first time in transplant history, skin is taken from the face of another person, not from the patient itself. According to doctors, patients are in excellent health and the transplants look perfect. This news is giving hope to a normal life without knowing how many people are living with a deformed face, such as patients with severe burns.

Difficulties stacked

One of the biggest technical concerns in a transplant is that the patient's body does not accept "strange objects" that have just been "glued". Every 2 hours, doctors will have to check if blood flow in "foreign objects" is normal and if it is mixed into the circulating flow throughout the body. And also, at this time, it is impossible to say that the surgery was successful. What will happen if it fails? What will the patient's face look like? Not predictable at this time. The risk is too great.

Experts also warn of a tendency to have a lot of blood clogging inside newly grafted blood vessels and immunosuppressive drugs may be ineffective. The risk of cancer is also increased because patients will have to take high-dose immunosuppressants throughout their lives.

Like the dead?

Not really because of the facial features of each person not only due to the shape of the eyes, nose, mouth but also by their skeleton. Therefore, even in the case of transplanting the whole face, the patient cannot look exactly like the donor. Computer animations have proved it. However, it is impossible to say that the patient's face is not the same as the donor, especially in the case of a face transplant. This is the first obstacle to the strong opposition of face transplantation. Imagine the encounter between a distressed husband and another woman with the face of a deceased wife.

In addition, another obstacle is more difficult to accept. Put your loved one in the hospital's intensive care room. You must be the one who signs the paper agreeing to let the doctor cut the face of the loved one before pulling the oxygen tube out. And most likely, your loved one is still breathing. Face transplantation is only possible when parts are taken while the donor heart is still beating. For the grafted person, it will not be easy for them to accept that they are no longer like themselves but like a deceased person.

Kieu Oanh