Milestone as man wears donor’s face

An American who lost his lips, nose and teeth in a 1997 gun accident was this week given a new face, teeth, tongue and jaw in what doctors say is the most extensive face transplant in history.

The 36-hour operation, which has now become the subject of discussion in Kenyan universities, took place at the University of Maryland Medical Centre.

Richard Lee Norris, 37, underwent several life-saving and reconstructive operations after the accident, but had limited use of his mouth and appeared as though his lower face and nose had been mashed in.

Norris new face is from an anonymous donor whose organs saved five other patients’ lives the same day, the Daily Mail reported.

“The transplant included all facial soft tissue from the scalp to the neck, including the underlying muscles to enable facial expression, and sensory and motor nerves to restore feeling and function,” chief plastic surgeon Eduardo Rodriguez said in a statement to newsrooms around the world.

The operation involved 100 doctors and university scientists after 10 years of research funded by the US Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research, which hopes it will serve as a model for helping war veterans injured by improvised explosives in Afghanistan.

Those in the team ranged from plastic surgeons to craniofacial specialists.

“It requires highly specialised units to coordinate such surgery,” said Isaac Macharia, professor of surgery at the University of Nairobi.

“We already have technical skills in some areas to conduct a successful face transplant, our surgeons will require more training and better equipment.

He added: “The good thing is that what has been done in the US will spread around the world and with time it will be possible for the full face transplant to be done in Kenya.”

At Kenyatta University, medical student Tom Mboya said his fellow students had taken a keen interest on the surgery.

Looks complicated

“We gathered in newsrooms to watch the reporting of the amazing surgery. It looks complicated, but we can get there, especially with the massive hospital which is being built in KU,” Mr Mboya said.

The Kenyan government signed a Sh9.85 billion concession loan last year with Chinese Export Import (Exim) Bank to fund the construction of the hospital. The hospital project by Kenyatta University will become the first fully managed health facility by a university in Kenya.

But Dr Wycliffe Guto of the University of Nairobi told the Nation that it would take Kenya dozens of years before such a dream can be realised, although he said it was possible.

“It will need extensive research and involvement of university teams,” Dr Guto said.

For the past 15 years, Norris lived his life behind a mask, only shopping at night to avoid curious onlookers.

“This transplant will give him his life back,” Dr Rodriguez, said in the statement.

Doctors said his recovery was faster than expected when six days after his surgery, he was able to move his tongue and open and close his eyes.

The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was to ask for a mirror. He now becomes the first full-face transplant recipient in the US to retain his eyesight.

Doctors gave him a new tongue for proper speech, eating, and chewing. They also aligned his teeth, and connected his nerves to allow him share a smile once again.

Before that he had been to 12 more surgeries to regain additional mobility in his face and mouth and to reconstruct some of his features. Only 22 face transplants have been performed around the world to date.

Kenya is yet to perform a face transplant, a procedure that was first performed in France in 2005 when the face of Isabelle Dinoire who was mauled by a dog was partially transplanted.

In July 2010, doctors at the Spanish Hospital Vall d’Hebron booked their names in historical books when they conducted the world’s first full face transplant.

But Norris’ face transplant seems to be the most aesthetically successful todate.

Local reporting by Nyambega Gisesa