A Spanish man who underwent the world’s first full face transplant appeared before TV cameras on Monday for the first time since his surgery in March.
“Friends, I want to thank the hospital coordinators, the entire medical team, the family of the donor and most of all my family who are supporting me these days,” said the 31-year-old, who was identified only as Oscar.
The man, speaking just before checking out of hospital, spoke with considerable difficulty and could not close his mouth and his face appeared swollen.
He reportedly suffered injuries in a shooting accident five years ago.
He wore a blue scarf which hid scars on his neck and his hair was combed forward to hide scars on his forehead which doctors say will be fully concealed in the future.
A team of about 30 experts carried out the transplant on March 20 at Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron hospital on the man, who could not swallow, breathe or talk normally due to his injuries from the accident.
During the 24-hour-long operation, he received new facial muscles, skin, nose, lips, a jaw, teeth, a palate and cheekbones, the leader of the medical team that carried out the procedure, Joan Pere Barret, told the news conference.
“Bit by bit he is improving but he nonetheless has a long and difficult road ahead to have intelligible speech like he had before,” he added.
While 11 other face transplants have been carried out around the world previously, Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron hospital says they involved only part of the patient’s face.
The first successful face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old woman who had been mauled by her dog.
Since then face transplants have been carried out in China, the US and Spain, which carried out its first such operation in August 2009.
Spain led the world in organ donations in 2009 for the 18th consecutive year, according to the health ministry.
(AFP)
三月份完成世界首次全臉移植手術的一位西班牙男性,週一首次在電視鏡頭前露臉。
今年三十一歲的奧斯卡表示:「朋友們,我要感謝醫院聯絡人員、整個醫療小組、器官捐贈者的家庭,尤其是這些日子來一直支持我的家人。」
出院前費了很大功夫做出上述表示的奧斯卡,還無法閉上嘴巴,臉部也顯得腫脹。
報導顯示,他是因五年前一次射擊意外而受傷。
他圍了一條藍色圍巾蓋住脖子上的疤,並用瀏海遮住額頭上的傷痕。醫生表示額頭上的疤未來將完全消除。
大約三十人的醫療小組三月二十日在巴塞隆納的瓦爾德希布倫醫院進行移植手術,當時病人因意外傷害而無法正常吞食、呼吸甚至說話。
記者會上,主持手術小組的若安•貝雷•巴瑞特表示,在這個持續二十四小時的手術中,奧斯卡得到了新的臉部肌肉、皮膚、鼻子、嘴唇、下顎、牙齒、上顎及顴骨。
他說:「病人一點一點的在進步,但如果想恢復以往清楚的表達能力,還有一段很長很艱辛的路要走。」
儘管全球已有十一例臉部移植手術,巴塞隆納的瓦爾德希布倫醫院表示,這些醫院負責的只是部分臉部手術。
第一起成功移植臉部案例是在二00五年的法國,患者是三十八歲的女性伊莎貝爾•帝諾瓦爾,她因被愛犬攻擊而毀容。
此後,中國、美國與西班牙都有成功移植的案例。西班牙的首次手術是在二00九年。
根據衛生部的資料,直到二00九年,西班牙已連續十八年榮登世界器官捐贈第一名的國家。(法新社╱翻譯:吳岱璟)
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