Meet The Doctor Behind The Most Extreme Face Transplant Ever

Last August, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez performed the most extensive face transplant operation ever.  In the 26-hour operation, which took place at New York University Langone Medical Center, the dentist-turned-plastic-surgeon and his team removed the face and scalp of a young victim of a fatal accident and successfully grafted the tissue onto the head of Patrick Hardison, a firefighter who had been horribly burned in a 2001 fire.  The operation showed in dramatic fashion just how far organ transplantation has come since its start in 1954, when surgeons at Brigham Hospital in Boston took a kidney from one man and gave it to his twin. In the six decades since then, doctors learned how to transplant not just kidneys but also hearts, lungs, livers and other “solid” organs. Now they’re transplanting faces, hands, arms, uteruses, penises and other body parts that ― unlike solid organs ― are made up of multiple tissues, including blood vessels, muscle and bone. “It is an exciting time, and the future of organ transplantation continues to evolve,” Rodriguez told The Huffington Post in an email. Rodriguez wants face transplantation to become the “standard of care for individuals in need.” But this will happen only if some major obstacles are overcome. The high cost of these procedures is one: Who will pay for operations like face transplants, which in the case of the injured firefighter cost an estimated $1 million? Then th...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news