Face Transplants

[dr_mabeuse]

Sounds like a threat, doesn't it?

An article in the 6/12 Chicago Tribune states that at least two medical centers are ready to conduct the world's first face transplants, using facial skin from cadavers. The recipients would be people horribly scarred from burns, etc.

Does this sound like a horror movie or what? It creeps me totally out.

--Zoot

 

[impressive]

From cadavers? Eeeesh. Gives "deadpan expression" a whole new meaning.

However, I can kinda understand where some might welcome it.

 

[R. Richard]

Sounds like a threat, doesn't it?

An article in the 6/12 Chicago Tribune states that at least two medical centers are ready to conduct the world's first face transplants, using facial skin from cadavers. The recipients would be people horribly scarred from burns, etc.

Does this sound like a horror movie or what? It creeps me totally out.

--Zoot

Despite the rather gruesome image, I actually find it a bit uplifiting. I can see people who would never be able to live a normal life able to rebuild with a new face.

Unfortunately I can also see people doing face transplants for vanity.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

From cadavers? Eeeesh. Gives "deadpan expression" a whole new meaning.

However, I can kinda understand where some might welcome it.

Yeah. The tragedy of being facially disfigured must be absolutely devastating. Our faces are our identities. But getting a face from a cadaver?

I'm sure it's not as gruesome as it sounds. I mean, the recipient isn't going to look like the deceased or anything. I don't think. But still... I'm signed up as an organ donor and I intend to be cremated, but if they wanted to take my face, I don't know what I'd say.

I just wonder that no horror author ever came up with a story based on this.

 

[Guest]

i was just watching a special on this and one of the concerns brought up was...
'would i recognise my *insert loved one here*'s face?'
the doctors were emphatic one this issue that because of the bone structure, the face would become that of the person now 'wearing' it.
i say, if they can make a go of it then it would help those who have had serious issues with self. would you be able to go out in the world and work if you were horridly facially disfigured? would you become agoraphobic? simply put, you can't answer those questions unless you are in that situation.
so, brava/o to those making strides to help those who need it...even if it does seem a bit on the 'creepy' side.

 

[Op_Cit]

I just keep hearing Rod Serling saying, "Imagine if you will: a man who can change his face..."

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

like Legos!

"snap on! Snap off!"™

anyone see Face Off with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage?

yep.. interesting movie, that.

 

[BlackShanglan]

It does sound gruesome. I recall a story from some years back about a man who had a transplant of a complete hand and later asked to have it removed. It noted in the article that the doctors had had concerns about his suitability for the transplant in the first place based on psychological testing and interviews. I wonder what sort of character or personality would be suited to accepting this sort of challenge. Personally, I would feel unsettled even with less physically obvious transplants, like a liver or kidney. I'm sure that I would ultimately do it in order to survive, but it would be a rather horrifying feeling to know that a piece of a dead person was sewn up inside one's body.

Ugh. Excuse me while I go shudder in a corner.

Shanglan

 

[Dar~]

I would rathe rbe disfigured. simply because regardless of burn scars or what have you, I woul dbe me. Things sometimes happen for a reason and I truly believe you are never dealt something you can't handle. If I were facially messed up, I would learn to deal and be strong. It would only strengthen me in life.
I have no problem with other views though.

PS: what happens if the body rejects the new face? Can they reattach the old one, do they have a back up new face?

 

[Guest]

It does sound gruesome. I recall a story from some years back about a man who had a transplant of a complete hand and later asked to have it removed. It noted in the article that the doctors had had concerns about his suitability for the transplant in the first place based on psychological testing and interviews. I wonder what sort of character or personality would be suited to accepting this sort of challenge. Personally, I would feel unsettled even with less physically obvious transplants, like a liver or kidney. I'm sure that I would ultimately do it in order to survive, but it would be a rather horrifying feeling to know that a piece of a dead person was sewn up inside one's body.

Ugh. Excuse me while I go shudder in a corner.

Shanglan

that man stopped taking his anti-rejection meds and his hand died on his arm. i think its safe to say he wasnt mentally up to the challenge. but the question is good...who would be?
i dont know that i could but if it meant that i could see again...if i lost my sight...if it meant that i could hear or live...i think i could muster up the courage to 'borrow' a part of someone else for a while.

 

[impressive]

i dont know that i could but if it meant that i could see again...if i lost my sight...if it meant that i could hear or live...i think i could muster up the courage to 'borrow' a part of someone else for a while.

Won't be long 'til you can grow another part of yourself.

 

[rgraham666]

Working on a story in the near future where people get their faces changed to look like celebrities.

Odd behaviour becomes apparent in those who decide to look like Ted Bundy or Aileen Wournos.

 

[cantdog]

I rather hope alloplasty and, ultimately, regeneration become more feasible. There are too many negative features to transplants.

 

[SeaCat]

Besides the point of this idea being somewhat gruesome to some people I think the idea is a great one. While scars are a sign of having survived many people, and not neccesarily those who are vain about their appearances, have a hard time dealing with them. In many cases it is the rememberance of how those scars came to be which is more damaging than the scars themselves.

Even while this is going on the research into the creation of synthetic tissue is ongoing. Hopefully some day soon this research will bear fruit and we wont need to use donors for transplants. Until then any willing donor is a good donor.

Cat

 

[R. Richard]

Some time ago, I had a skin cancer removed. After they removed the skin cancer, they did a skin graft. Since I was both the graftor and the graftee, so to speak, I did not really think about the matter too much. However, I cannot see myself getting too upset if the new skin had been from someone else or artificial skin.

 

[shereads]

I read someplace that butt-cheek fat from cadavers can be injected in the lips to give them that pouty Pia Zadora look.

This means it's possible to kiss ass without knowing it.

 

[Belegon]

for myself, I have little to no qualms here...and I am a registered donor. It is not the body that makes me myself. and this is coming from a person who considers himself rather vain...

 

[shereads]

Besides the point of this idea being somewhat gruesome to some people I think the idea is a great one. While scars are a sign of having survived many people, and not neccesarily those who are vain about their appearances, have a hard time dealing with them.

Years ago, my mother had a defective heart valve replaced with one from a pig. (Pigs hearts are more compatible with human hearts than other animals. There's a lesson in humility there somewhere.) After the surgery, we brought her some silly gifts to cheer her up: a pig doll and a pair of fuzzy pink slippers with pig eyes and snouts. She burst into tears. The joke about putting her to work hunting truffles didn't help.

For a year, she couldn't stand the sight of bacon or anything else pig-related. I hadn't realized how disconcerting it might be to receive an alien body part. I'm not sure which would take more getting used to: parts from a live animal or a dead person. Of course, the pig was dead after they took the part; it's also a safe bet that the pig wasn't asked if he'd like to be an organ donor.

Mom got used to the pig part, though. We knew she'd accepted it as her own when she was able to eat ham again. The porcine mitrol valve added 14 years to her life, and when it had to be replaced with an artificial one, she missed it. The plastic one makes a clicking sound that you can hear if the room is quiet and you're sitting in a chair near her bed. For weeks after the surgery, she said she lay awake at night listening for the click, because if it stopped she'd know her heart wasn't beating.

Miracles can be creepy.

 

[shereads]

for myself, I have little to no qualms here...and I am a registered donor. It is not the body that makes me myself. and this is coming from a person who considers himself rather vain...

I'm a registered organ donor too, but I envisioned something more dignified for my butt cheeks than manufacturing pouty lips for starlets. By all means, if someone's butt cheeks have been destroyed in an accident, they are welcome to mine provided I'm no longer using them. But don't use my spare parts frivolously. I don't kiss - or sit on - just anyone.

Edited to add: No one, I mean no one, gets my nipples or Private Parts. Those go out of service when I do. In sports, they call it retiring your jersey, don't they? There should be a check-box for that on the organ donor form.

 

[Belegon]

I don't kiss - or sit on - just anyone.

must resist...urge to make comment...too strong....but I pass the test. I will diminish and go into the west...

Edited to add: No one, I mean no one, gets my nipples or Private Parts. Those go out of service when I do. In sports, they call it retiring your jersey, don't they? There should be a check-box for that on the organ donor form.

can't resist this:

me: so, listen: if I die, do you have any objection to them taking you off me and putting you on another man, to start anew?

Bel's penis: you mean, you'll be dead, but I still get laid? sorry man, I'm gonna miss you and all, but still.....

 

[shereads]

me: so, listen: if I die, do you have any objection to them taking you off me and putting you on another man, to start anew?

Bel's penis: you mean, you'll be dead, but I still get laid? sorry man, I'm gonna miss you and all, but still.....

Years later...

Solano, California (Associated Press). Convicted child molester Michael Jackson arrived back at California State Prison today, following successful surgery in Los Angeles to replace his penis, which was critically injured during last month's prison riot. The warden's office said that Jackson will be returned to the general inmate population, adding, "They're clamoring for him in Cellblock Three. He's really popular."

The new penis was from an anonymous organ donor. A spokesman for Jackson denied rumors that fat from the donor's butt cheeks was used to sculpt a new chin.

 

[jfinn]

I think you're missing the point. It's only skin and maybe some fat that'll be overlayed on the skeletal structure of the face. It won't change the face into someone elses, only take it back to what it was supposed to be before the injury.

This isn't actually all that new. Cadaver skin or as it's commonly called, allograft, has been used for years on severely burned patients with large areas of open tissue. This is just the next logical progression in the process. And while you might find it creepy, it's really no different than using any other cadaver organs for transplant. Would you turn down a kidney that would save your life or corneas that would enable you to see simply because they came from a deceased donor?

I've worked in two hospitals with major burn units. The vast majority of patients are under the age of ten. Often their faces are destroyed. Plastic surgery can make major improvements, but the process is slow because harvesting skin on kids is difficult, you can only take so much from one spot and that has to match the texture and folicle growth of the area to be repaired. This means that most of these kids go through puberty and the rest of their teens looking like monsters. The psychological effect is devastating. Hell, adolescence is difficult enough as it is, imagine what it's like with no lips or eyelids.

So yeah, if this works, then I'm all for it.

Jayne

PS When I first started working they used to pigskin for grafts. It worked, but it didn't look all that great. I mean have you ever seen a pair of pigskin gloves?