Dallas Wiens wanted to feel her 4 year daughter kissing once again, something that he could not do after a terrible electrical accident disfigured his face.
But he will be able to collect his touch soon, doctors, said Monday, less than two months after Wiens suffered the first full face transplant in the United States.
In the meantime, Wiens already has the Scarlette seal little approval. "It really, 'Daddy, you are so beautiful',"he said at a Monday press conference.""For her, I am always Daddy. Which in itself is an incredible thing. ?
Wiens experience represents a new frontier for reconstructive surgery, says Dr. Jeffrey Janis of Parkland Hospital and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, who treated the time of his accident Wiens.
His injury happened in November 2008 when Wiens, now 26, was painting her as a volunteer Church: his head got too close a high voltage power line, and he almost lost his entire face of the burns.
For 90 days, doctors kept in a coma medically induced while they performed surgery and he breathed through a fan. Many people didn't think he would get out of the intensive care unit, Janis, said Monday.
But he survived. Janis connected with Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, Director of unit burn at Brigham and women hospital, Massachusetts who had previously played a partial face transplant. Pomahac became the head of the team of more than 30 health care professionals who participate in the surgery of Wiens.
Even if the procedure was relatively - pioneer Janis little these transplants have been performed throughout the world - Wiens have not hesitated to accept, said.
"I think that he had eyes on the objective, which was to feel kisses her daughter on her face, and nothing was not going to stop him from doing that," said Janis.
In a procedure for 15 hours in mid-March, doctors gave Wiens a front of donors, nasal structure, nose, lips and the skin of the face. They have also transplanted underlying muscles and nerves that will allow the Wiens of sensation and movement in his face.
"When I woke up, and I could feel that I still - features eyes and a nose and a mouth - I even said above and that this could not be medically possible," Wiens said Monday. "But I am today."
Wiens said his face "feels natural, as if it has become my own."
The face, ranging from the mid-scalp to the neck, does not look like the face of Wiens or that of its original owner. This is because the appearance of a face is made of many components: skin, fat, muscle and bone. Wiens head skeleton is his own and creates a single face in combination with the features of the donor.
But there is one thing that remains Wiens signing leave prior to the accident: his goatee. Even in the intensive care unit, he wanted to keep a goatee. It turns out that the face of the donor, is now part of ' own Wiens, can grow hair. Even the hair on the head of Wiens, mid scalp area, is part of the skin of the donor (the hair on the back of the head of Wiens are his own).
"The face that he has received a full capacity to grow as any male facial hair," said Janis.
Currently, he can feel the pressure on his face, said Janis. Within six to nine months, Wiens will begin to be able to feel touch light on his face and move his face and lips, said Pomahac. His speech is currently a bit garbled, but doctors expect to improve nerves more begins to work.
The first thing that felt Wiens odour was lasagna at the hospital, which was "delicious", said. And he remembers smell hibiscus and other flowers in his room.
He said "to know that I could feel a rose or anything like that yet again, really struck home for me,". "."
Its more difficult adjustment was the loss of sight, "not not because I am blind but because I had to adapt to my life around," Wiens. It was always his right eye but no light perception, said Pomahac. There are shields where eyes used to be, and that can later be made to look more natural, Janis said.
Pomahac said there was no chance of restoring sight of Wiens, the lack of technology, but he said now there might be hope for change in the future, he said at the press conference.
Since ten years, have been many advances in the field of facial transplantation.
In April 2010, a patient identified only as "Oscar" received the first ever full registry in Spain. This operation took 24 hours.
Connie Culp Ohio also represented a milestone of face transplant, receiving a registry of more than 80% of his face at the Cleveland Clinic in December 2008. Two years later, she said that she was pleased the transformation and could feel and more to eat solid foods. She had lost sensations of capacity after husband he shot and killed in 2004, spraying his nose, cheeks and upper lip.
The first transplant partial deal took place in November 2005 in France. The patient, Isabelle Dinoire, had been mauled by a dog. She received a new chin, nose, lips and other parts of the face of donor organs.
Pomahac said it expects growth in these types of cases. There is another patient in line for a transplant to through the Ministry of defence even grant that funded the Wiens procedure, said Janis. In the future, when the technique is refined, people with certain injuries could receive transplants of the features of individual face, said Janis.
Plans Wiens return to Texas and "spend time with my family and continue on my life," he said. He also wants to continue his studies.
With the currently available drugs, Wiens will have to take medication for the rest of his life to remove his immune system so that his body will be less likely to reject the new tissue.
Janis and colleagues expect Wiens to return soon and will continue to monitor its progress.
And the first thing Wiens will when he gets home? "Hold my daughter", said.
No comments:
Post a Comment