After 15 years of wearing a mask and living as a recluse, a 37-year-old Virginia man disfigured in a gun accident got a new face, nose, teeth and jaw in what University of Maryland physicians say is the most extensive face transplant ever performed.
From left to right: face of Richard Norris before the accident, after the accident, and after the surgery. (Handout image from University of Maryland)
Richard Lee Norris of Hillsville is recovering well after last week’s surgery, beginning to feel his face and already brushing his teeth and shaving, University of Maryland Medical Center officials announced Tuesday. He’s also regained his sense of smell, which he had lost after the accident.
Norris, who was selected from among five possible candidates for the surgery, has been living as a recluse, doing his shopping at night. It’s hoped the transplant will give him his life back, said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the lead surgeon.
“It’s a surreal experience to look at him. It’s hard not to stare. Before, people used to stare at Richard because he wore a mask and they wanted to see the deformity,” Rodriguez said. “Now, they have another reason to stare at him, and it’s really amazing.”
Rodriguez showed a 1993 prom photo of Norris, “as we all want to be remembered,” beside a pre-transplant photo of Norris’ shortened face with a sunken mouth and flattened nose. He then revealed a photo of Norris taken on Monday, where his face appears ordinary, other than stitches along his hairline and neck and scarring around his eyelids. Although he now has the donor’s face, he doesn’t resemble the donor, Rodriguez said.
“It’s a combination of two individuals, a true blend,” he said.
Norris’ vision was largely unaffected by the accident. Because of numerous reconstructive surgeries, his forehead and neck were mostly scar tissue. Norris had no teeth, no nose and only part of his tongue. He was still able to taste but could not smell.
“He could not smell for the past 15 years, and that was the most dramatic thing _ immediately, on day three, he could finally smell,” Rodriguez said.
Doctors gave few details about the donor, citing the family’s desire for privacy. They said the donor’s organs went to several people. But the donor’s family was consulted specifically about donating the face, said Charles Alexander, president of the Living Legacy Foundation. He said that consenting to be an organ donor does not automatically extend to face donations.
The 36-hour operation was the most extensive because it included transplantation of the teeth, upper and lower jaw, a portion of the tongue and all facial tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck, Rodriguez said. Because it included so much facial tissue, the incisions are farther back and less visible, he said.
The most dramatic moment came when the team had finished removing all the previous attempts at reconstruction. All Norris had left was a bit of tongue and minimal protection for his eyes. Rodriguez called it the point of no return.
“At that point, we had to be successful,” he said. Norris will require minor revisions, but those will be outpatient procedures, he said.
It was the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure seven years ago. The first full face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who was mauled by her dog. The Cleveland Clinic performed the first face transplant in the U.S. in 2008.
The Department of Defense has been funding some face and hand surgeries with the goal of helping wounded soldiers. More than 1,000 troops have lost an arm or leg in Afghanistan or Iraq, and the government estimates that 200 troops might be eligible for face transplants.
The University of Maryland’s research on transplants was funded by a grant from the Office of Naval Research, and doctors said they hope to begin operating soon on military patients.
Researchers found that transplants involving large amount of bone marrow with its own blood supply saw fewer or no rejections, transplant surgeon Rolf Barth said. Norris will have to take immunosuppression drugs for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting the donated face, but the jaw transplant could mean he will need less and may be able to go off steroids, he said.
“This was the perfect patient to put into practice what we had discovered in the laboratory,” Barth said.
Officials provided little detail on Norris or the circumstances of the accident that took his face. He graduated from high school in his small southwest Virginia hometown in 1993 and was employed at the time of the accident. Since then, he has lived with his parents and has not had a full-time job, Rodriguez said.
“This accidental injury just destroyed everything. The rest of his friends and colleagues went on to start getting married, having children, owning homes,” Rodriguez told the Associated Press. “He wants to make up for all of that.” (AP)
15년 전 얼굴 잃은 男 ‘새 얼굴’ 이식 받아!
15년 전 끔찍한 총기 사고로 얼굴의 상당 부분을 잃은 남자가 역사상 가장 광범위한 안면이식 수술을 받으면서 ‘새 얼굴’을 갖게 되었다고 AP통신이 보도했다.
메릴랜드 대학 의료진은 37세인 리처드 노리스 씨에게 안면, 코, 치아와 턱을 새로 이식해주는 대수술을 36시간만에 성공적으로 마쳤다고 27일(현지시간) 발표했다.
노리스 씨는 현재 양치질과 면도가 가능한 상황이며 총기 사고 이후 잃었던 후각 역시 회복되었다.
수술을 주도한 에두아르도 로드리게스 박사는 노리스 씨가 지금껏 마스크를 쓰고 다니며 밤에만 쇼핑을 하는 등 은둔 생활을 계속해왔다면서 이번 기회의 그의 삶을 되찾을 수 있을 것이라고 밝혔다.
노리스 씨의 수술은 세계에서 가장 광범위한 안면 이식수술인 것으로 알려졌다.
의료진은 그가 장기를 기부한 사람의 얼굴을 받았으나 기부자와 사뭇 다른 얼굴을 하고 있다고 밝혔다.
이번 수술의 가장 극적인 부분은 노리스 씨의 얼굴을 복원하려는 기존의 수술 흔적들을 모두 제거했을 때였는데, 그 순간 노리스 씨 얼굴에 남은 것이라곤 혀와 안구를 보호하는 최소한의 살점뿐이었다. 로드리게스 박사는 바로 그때가 ‘돌아올 수 없는 시점’이라고 말했다.
“이 시점에선 그저 성공하길 바라는 수밖에 없었죠” 박사는 설명했다.
노리스 씨는 7년전 안면 이식이 시행되기 시작한 이래 23번째 환자였다. 사상 첫 번째 이식 수술은 2005년 프랑스에서 개에게 공격받은 여성이 받았다고 알려졌다.