undergo a face transplant after flu tablets
incompatible with his anti-rejection treatment led
to the first attempt to fail, poses on April 13, 2018
at the Hopital Europeen Georges-Pompidou in
Paris.
Jerome Hamon is getting used to his new soubriquet
" the man with three faces " .
He remains in a Paris hospital, three months after
undergoing his second face transplant, but has
quickly accepted his new " identity " .
His new face remains smooth and motionless, with
his skull, skin and features yet to be fully aligned , a
gradual process reliant on immunosuppressant drugs
which , hopefully , will prevent his body rejecting the
transplanted material .
" I feel very well in myself , " the 43-year -old
transplant recipient told reporters last week as he
continues his recovery from the surgery which was
carried out on January 15 and 16.
" I can' t wait to get rid of all this, " he adds , speaking
with difficulty of all the major treatment he has
undergone to become the first man to have received
two face transplants.
This unprecedented feat was painstakingly carried
out by the staff at the Georges-Pompidou European
Hospital in Paris, and Laurent Lantieri, a professor
of plastic surgery, who led the team through the
multi-step procedure .
It was a strange reunion for patient and doctor as it
was Lantieri who carried out the world ' s first full
face transplant, including tear ducts and eyelids, on
Hamon at a hospital outside Paris in July 2010.
– Two months without a face –
Hamon suffers from neurofibromatosis type 1, a
genetic mutation which causes severely disfiguring
tumours and related complications.
His first face transplant in 2010 was a success . But
that same year — in order to treat nothing more
than a common cold — he was given an antibiotic
incompatible with his immunosuppressive
treatment .
In 2016 he began to display signs of transplant
rejection , and his new face deteriorated.
Last summer Hamon was hospitalised and in
November his face , suffering from necrosis , had to
be removed .
He
remained in hospital without a face for two months ,
a very difficult time , while a compatible donor was
sought .
This exceptional case revealed an exceptional patient.
Everyone at the hospital " was blown away by
Jerome ' s courage , his will , his strength of character
in a tragic situation . While he was waiting he never
complained , he was even in a good mood , " recalled
Bernard Cholley , an anaesthetist .
Eventually , a face donor was found, a 22-year -old
man who had died hundreds of kilometres from
Paris . Lantieri heard the news on a Sunday in
January and the massive logistical and medical
operation was swiftly launched.
The donor face was transported as quickly as
possible by road on the Monday to the Georges-
Pompidou hospital in Paris .
By late morning the following day, Hamon was being
wheeled back to his hospital bed following the
ground -breaking surgery, with his medical team
noticing encouraging signs of good colour in his new
face .
– ' It ' s good , it 's me ' –
The operation answers a key question for Lantieri
and the rest of the medical world ; " Can we redo a
facial transplant? Yes, we can re -transplant and this
is what you get !"
To avoid any rejection , the patient underwent three
months of special blood treatment prior to the
transplant, nephrologist Eric Thervet explained .
Despite all the anxiety and suffering, Hamon is a
happy man again.
" The first transplant I accepted immediately . I
thought ' this is my new face ' and this time it ' s the
same , " he explained .
" If I hadn ' t accepted this new face it would have
been terrible. It ' s a question of identity … But here
we are, it ' s good, it ' s me . "
There have now been around 40 face transplants
throughout the world since the first was performed
on Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire in northern France
in 2005 .
No comments:
Post a Comment