[Vision2020] Face Transplant Findings Could Help Soldiers

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Army Times at:

 

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/ap-face-transplant-findings-could-help
-soldiers-050911/

 

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Face transplant findings could help soldiers

 

DoD funds procedure with hope to assist soldiers with severe facial wounds

 

BOSTON - The nation's first full face transplant recipient said the first
thing his young daughter told him when she saw him after the operation was
"Daddy, you're so handsome."

 

Dallas Wiens, sporting a goatee and dark sunglasses, joined surgeons Monday
at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in his first public appearance
since the 15-hour procedure in March.

 

"It feels natural," said the 25-year-old Fort Worth, Texas, man, who
received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves from an anonymous donor.
The operation was paid for by the U.S. military, which hopes to use findings
from the procedure to help soldiers with severe facial wounds.

 

Wiens' features were all but burned away and he was left blind after hitting
a power line while painting a church in November 2008.

 

Surgeons said the transplant was not able to restore his sight, and some
nerves were so badly damaged from his injury that he will probably have only
partial sensation on his left cheek and the left side of his forehead.

 

In an Associated Press story and a YouTube video last fall, Wiens spoke
poignantly about why he wanted a transplant and how he wanted to smile again
and feel kisses from his daughter, Scarlette, who turns 4 next month. Face
transplants give horribly disfigured people hope of an option other than
"looking in the mirror and hating what they see," he said.

 

He told the AP that his daughter and his faith have kept him motivated.

 

The surgery was paid for by the Department of Defense, which gave the
hospital a $3.4 million research grant for five transplants.

 

About a dozen face transplants have been done worldwide, in the U.S.,
France, Spain and China.

 

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Face transplant recipient Dallas Wiens, of Fort Worth, Texas, takes
questions from members of the media during a news conference at Brigham And
Women's Hospital in Boston on May 9. Wiens is the recipient of the first
full face transplant in the United States.

0509ap-face-transplant-800.JPG

http://www.armytimes.com/xml/news/2011/05/ap-face-transplant-findings-could-
help-soldiers-050911/0509ap-face-transplant-800.JPG

 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

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