Man receive a face transplant the first one in Canada, sorry no pictures ( Archived) (9)

MONTREAL — In a Canadian medical first, surgeons at Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital announced Wednesday they’d performed a face transplant, giving a badly disfigured Quebec man a second lease on life.

Hospital officials detailed last May’s complex and risky 30-hour procedure involving Maurice Desjardins, who at 64 was described as the world’s oldest recipient of such a transplant.

A team led by plastic surgeon Dr. Daniel Borsuk was part of the first Canadian attempt at the surgery, which has been performed about 40 times worldwide since 2005.

Borsuk said there was no other option for Desjardins, who’d been living in constant pain and isolation despite five reconstructive surgeries since a hunting accident in 2011 left him without his jaw, nose and teeth.
“Imagine when you’re suffering in silence at home for years and you don’t leave your house as much as you’d like to, and you’re sleeping in a separate room because of the sound of the tracheostomy (opening in the trachea),” said Borsuk, who also teaches at Universite de Montreal.

“You’re living this very difficult existence. Then, overnight essentially, you get a second lease on life.”

Desjardins came to see Borsuk in Montreal with a few requests: to be able to breathe properly, speak properly and to have a nose, lips, jaws and teeth.

Borsuk said Desjardins also wanted to be able to walk outside with his granddaughter without people staring at his disfigurement.

The patient was carefully vetted for years before the procedure.

“We put him through the wringer in terms of tests,” Borsuk said. “We wanted to make sure this guy was in good health … his needs were there, there was no other option for him, and there was no other chance of him having a normal life.”

I once saw a documentary about face, or partial face transplants.

Apparently, because the cadaver donor and recipient have to be genetically similar to avoid tissue rejection, the facial features are often quite similar.

It seems that's a rather neat psychological bonus for recipients.

Google."Man to get a face transplant in Montreal:"
You would not believe the before and after.
This man went through hell for 7 years.
He told all he wanted and hoped for was to be able to eat and look normal


Jenny

You are just fishing for a compliment Track and I refuse to fall for it

So far Jac, 40 transplants world wide have been performed.
In some ways I would like to turn the clock back but for sure not when it comes to the medical field

Can not agree or disagree as your face does not show clear in your picture.
Be of good cheer as when you see the faces of those who needed and go a transplant
you will feel you look just fine