Saturday, April 15, 2006

World's first major face transplant

Back in 1997 at the Jurong multiplex, Singapore, I saw a movie "Face/Off".
An embittered FBI undercover agent played by John Travolta, captures a criminal (played by Nicholas Cage) who lapses into a coma. Their faces are surgically exchanged so that the hero can deceive the villain's brother into telling him where a nerve-agent bomb is located.
Face/Off was made by the great Chinese action movie director: John Woo.

Well that was science fantasy.

Now the news (China Daily report) is
that the Chinese have successfully done a partial face transplant
on a 30-year old man with a badly disfigured face.

A black bear had badly mutilated his face two years ago.

Yesterday, Friday 14th April, doctors performed the 14-hour cutting-edge medical procedure
at Xijing military hospital in the central city of Xi'an [N34.272751°, E108.982295°]. Mr. Li Guoxing was given 2/3 of a new face: a new cheek, upper lip, nose, and one eyebrow from a single donor.
Doctors expect the wounds to heal in a week.

The hospital performed the surgery free of charge as the patient was too poor to afford it.

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