US's first facial transplant is done in Cleveland

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by sceniczip

Wasn't Rainbow Babies supposed to do the separation of twins who were older? I can't remember how old? But because of where they were joined at decided not to do it? I just vaguely remember that story because the article I read about it said something about how our Rainbow Babies was like the only hospital that would even consider doing it or something. I think they were from Egypt...

You are correct; it was Rainbow Babies, but the twins were I believe Romanian (father was a Byzantine Catholic priest) . Rainbow was suppose to do the surgery but cancelled it right before it happened due to complications. If I remember correctly, there was always speculation that the one girl would have never survived the operation.

They should be about 5 years old now.

[sceniczip]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

You are correct; it was Rainbow Babies, but the twins were I believe Romanian (father was a Byzantine Catholic priest) . Rainbow was suppose to do the surgery but cancelled it right before it happened due to complications. If I remember correctly, there was always speculation that the one girl would have never survived the operation.

They should be about 5 years old now.

Thank you for clarifying I hate when I can vaguely remember something but not quite because then it drives me crazy!

[Benzgirl]

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-...t-h-2008-12-22

Li Guoxing, 32, died in July at his home in southwestern China after taking herbal medicines instead of immune-suppressing drugs typically used to prevent recipients from rejecting donated tissue, his surgeon, Guo Shuzhong, told Agence-France Presse over the weekend. Li's death had been rumored for months on Chinese blogs, AFP notes.

"His death was not caused by the surgery. Our operation was a success," Guo told AFP. "But we cannot rule out a connection with the immune system drugs."

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Does anyone question the ethics of this type of surgery?

Are you ok with this being done?

Would you ever consider doing this if your face was disfigured?

Any other thoughts or opinions on this?

So this IRB (Institutional Review Board) that confirms if this process is humane and sound was put forward ~4 years ago. Also the ethics rules were reviewed by 3 other worldwide board--such as England, France and the US. So, if there was any questions on the glitch, someone would have determined it to derail the process.

After determining that this process is NOT plastic surgery, although a plastic surgeon was employed, I was pretty okay with is being done on this woman.

This woman's face was SEVERELY disfigured. Apparently, her face was smashed in somehow and she felt so self-conscious about going outdoors in public, that she became "agoraphobic" (?)--where she stayed and would not go outside of the house, causing depression. Her quality of life was poor because of her disfigurement. So, after a year review with psychiatrists and social workers telling her the risks of this treatment, she still went forward with the surgery. If her "transplant" takes with all the treatments, I think this will be the ground work for other people with similar conditions. It took a team of physicians, dentists, mental health professionals, ethicists, to put this surgery together. And she is in no way finished with all the work that needs to be done.

Would I choose this surgery if I was severely grossly disfigured? I don't know?

This is was good medicine looks like: collaborative, careful, organized, and successful. It takes 4 years to put together, not haphazard, minimizes mistakes, and not doing this for the cockiness of fame and fortune (speaking relatively), but to really heal and help somebody, which I think the Cleveland Clinic was really trying to do. That's my opinion.