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Texas Man Gets First Full Face Transplant in the United States

Notes on my thoughts,

grandfather, Del Peterson, who attended the news conference Monday.

reactions and questions as I

read:

After the accident, Wiens said "he could choose to get bitter or he could choose to get

better. His choice was to get better. Thank God today he's better," Peterson said.

In an Associated Press story and a YouTube video last fall, Wiens spoke poignantly

about why he wanted a transplant and how he wanted to smile again and feel kisses

from his daughter, Scarlette, who turns 4 next month. Face transplants give horribly

disfigured people hope of an option other than "looking in the mirror and hating what

they see," he said.

No details about the donor were disclosed. Peterson said his grandson hopes to become

an advocate for facial donations, and he thanked the donor family, saying, "You will

forever remain in our hearts and our prayers and we are grateful for your selflessness."

The surgery was paid for by the Defense Department from a $3.4 million grant given to

the hospital for transplant research.

The new federal health care law also helped Wiens by allowing him to get insurance

coverage under his father's plan for the expensive drugs he will have to take for the rest

of his life to prevent rejection of his new face. He will be covered until he turns 26 in

May. He expects to be eligible soon under Medicare, which insures the disabled as well

as those over 65.

Wiens had no insurance when he was injured; Medicaid covered about two dozen

operations until his disability payments put him over the income limit.

About a dozen face transplants have been done worldwide, in the U.S., France, Spain

and China. This was the third in the U.S. and the second at the Boston hospital. The

previous one was in April 2009 — the partial replacement of the face of a man who was

injured in a freak accident. In 2008, Connie Culp became the nation's first partial face

transplant recipient. She underwent surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.

Pomahac said one of the two people on the waiting list in Boston for a face transplant is

Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was mauled and blinded by a friend's 200-

pound chimpanzee. The animal ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She is

also waiting for a hands transplant.

The world's first face transplant, also a partial, was done in France in 2005 on a woman

mauled by her dog. Doctors in Spain performed the first full face transplant last March

for a farmer who was unable to breathe or eat on his own after accidentally shooting

himself in the face.

Marchione, M., & Contreras, R. Texas man gets first full face transplant in US.

Available at

April 2, 2011.

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