Saving Face

Professor Maria Siemionow has returned to Poland from Cleveland, Ohio in the US where she led a team of internationally- renowned surgeons in successfully transplanting a woman's face.

The New York Times has called the transplant "one of the most shocking medical operations of the last decade." The woman's face is now made up of her own forehead, upper eyelids, lower teeth and jaw – the remaining elements of her face come from a cadaver.

The 23-hour operation, replacing the face of a woman with facial damage so severe she was unable to eat or breathe without extensive assistance, took place at the Cleveland Clinic in mid-December.

"Our patient was called names and was humiliated," Dr. Siemionow stated. "You need a face to face the world," added the surgeon.

The complex and highly experimental operation required that surgeons integrate functional components of the face – like the nose and lower eyelids – as well as skin, bones, muscles, arteries, veins and nerves. Almost 500 square centimeters of tissue were transplanted from the donating cadaver.

Dr. Siemienow has received much acclaim upon return to Poland – she is a guest-lecturer to packed auditoriums at the Poznan University of Medical Sciences, western Poland.

Source: thenews.pl