Psychological impact of face transplant surgeries

11 years ago, an Indian doctor had for the first time conducted a face transplant surgery. So far the face surgery has made great strides. But not everyone agrees with face transplant surgery, there are many conflicting opinions about whether to have face transplant surgery .!

In a rice field in Ludhiana, North India, Harpal Kaur and her 9-year-old beautiful daughter Sandeep are cutting straw for cattle to eat, her braid trapped in a threshing machine and pulling spread both her face and scalp into two pieces and fell on the dirty ground.

With great calm, Mrs. Harpal picked up these two pieces, put them in plastic bags. With her daughter lying in a coma in her mother's arms, Sandeep's father launched a motorbike for 3.5 hours to the Christian Medical University hospital.

The person in charge was Dr. Abraham Thomas, one of India's leading surgeons. Looking at the two pieces of skin, he exclaimed: 'Oh God, I can't do it!' . However, he still started work. After the first artery connection, he was more courageous when he saw a piece of skin on his face starting to turn pink.

During the next 10 hours, he meticulously connected each nerve and blood vessel. The surgery was successful. Now, at the age of 20, although the face has scars, Sandeep is quite healthy and is studying medicine.

That's the story that happened 11 years ago. Dr. Thomas is the first person in the world to successfully perform facial reconstruction surgery. Since then, groups of surgeons in the UK, US and France have tried to become the first person in medical history to make a comprehensive transplant - that is, take the face of a dead person attached to his face. a person lives.

One of them was Peter Butler, a famous medical consultant, working at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He formed a 35-member research team, which is part of his personal income.

He tried to solve a number of problems such as anti-rejection of tissue, anti-immune cream. At the end of 2005, the world shook with news that French professor Jean-Michel Dubernard had performed a transplant to replace a first face. Tissue donor is a brain-dead patient (Ms Maryline Saint Aubert).

The recipient was Mrs. Isabelle Dinoire, 38 years old, with a nose, mouth and chin implant due to dog bites. This Ethiopian is indeed a pioneer, but later they were denied the same surgery by the French National Ethics Committee. Dubernard - a close friend of President Chirac - was also the first person to perform a hand transplant in 1988.

Patients before and after surgery.(Photo: CAND)

Then, in July 2006, a 30-year-old Chinese farmer had a partial replacement of his face, including his nose, cheeks, upper lip and eyebrows after being attacked by bears. The surgery was performed in 15 hours in Xi'an. The reaction before the first facial transplant surgery went from joy to anxiety and fear.

Most surgeons say that it has brought new hope for those struggling with the heterosexual face . Current techniques - including the process of " covering the hip arm ", are transplants from patients' own skin, skin, tissue and bones - requiring dozens of surgeries to be performed. For years, patients still end up with distorted faces.

Experts hope that face transplantation will be the only surgery with a long-term pharmaceutical program to combat graft rejection. One of the advantages is that you will have a natural face, not a piece of patchwork leather.

The process can be done since the patient is young, because the new face will grow with them. The person who believes to be brain dead, has agreed while alive and is in a healthy state. Relatives need to be consulted.

Choosing the right people is no less difficult: It is the gender compatibility, the face size of the three-dimensional view, skin structure and color. The new face is a mix of givers and recipients, bringing about aesthetic, functional and psychological benefits.

However, many medical experts, psychologists, and social organizations argue that the above benefits are not worth 'making a dose' , cannot treat faces like internal organs or limbs. The psychological impact of such surgeries, ie in terms of honor and identity, has not been studied.

Isn't there something sacred when you own another person's face? James Partridge is the managing director of Changing Faces, a charitable organization that helps malformed faces overcome obstacles by building effective self-esteem and communication skills.

His daily work strategy is to ask the other person to focus on his eyes, not to focus on his deformity, because he is also a face transplant patient. However, for many people, facial graft has given them confidence in life.

For example, Michelle Syms is a 27-year-old nurse, working in the colon surgery department. When she was 8 years old, she was severely burned at a Halloween party due to her burning nylon dress, clinging to the skin, causing 69% of the skin to be distorted, affecting her face, hands, feet, and back.

Over 65 surgeries, she felt enough. But when she was still in school, she remembered that she had wanted to have face transplant surgery because she was teased and bullying by friends at school. Ms. Kirsty Nisbet, 15, has 89 scars on her face after a knife attack in Edinburgh five years ago.

She said she was more willing to live with someone else's face than with a "rough" face today. The first face transplant surgery was successful, but there are still hot questions about its present and future meaning .

Thuy Han