First US Face Transplant Recipient Dies, Leaving an Important Legacy
Phoenix666 writes:
On December 9 2008, 45-year-old Connie Culp became the first person in the United States, and only the fourth in the world, to receive a face transplant. Connie's transplant took a team at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio more than 22 hours to perform and allowed her to eat solid food again, to smell, and to breathe independently. Four years earlier, Connie had been shot in the face by her husband, who was subsequently imprisoned for seven years for aggravated attempted murder. Sadly, Connie died on July 29 2020, of an as yet unspecified infection.
[...] Understanding the psychological effects of living with visible facial difference, as well as a new face, is very important. Every surgical solution has emotional consequences, which are less documented than physical results. This reflects the context in which face transplants take place. Scientific medicine tends to focus on physical rather than mental measurements, and on the immediate "before and after" rather than the prolonged, complex work of psychological healing.
Surgical teams around the world are beginning to assess the quality of life outcomes of face transplants, but progress is slow. International comparisons are difficult to make, even in physical terms. Nine face transplant patients have died, and two faces have been rejected, but there are few examples of long term, holistic follow-up. Given Connie's work in raising public awareness of the impact of living with facial difference, there will be no more appropriate legacy than a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of face transplants.
The psychological wounds of the procedure may be harder to heal than the physical ones.
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