Facial Transplant Procedure Spawns Unlikely Friendship
- Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:26pm by
Meredith Jessup
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Ever-evolving medical technology is enabling groundbreaking research and procedures like complete facial transplants. But for a couple of strangers in Massachusetts, the procedure has given them much more.
After Susan Whitman Helfgot lost her husband in 2009, the widow was surprised to learn that his familiar face would help a man in dire need. James Maki, now 61, had suffered a tragic accident that left him severely deformed and was looking for a miracle to help heal his wounds. That miracle became Helfgot’s husband, Joseph.
Just one month after the revolutionary procedure put Joseph’s face on James, the two families met for the first time. Only 13 of these new procedures have been done the world over, and recent a meeting between James and Susan marked the only time a face donor’s family meeting the recipient.
“I had planned to remain anonymous,” Susan told the Post-Gazette, “but once it became public knowledge that Joseph was the donor, there was a lot of contact with the media.”
Before their meeting, Susan says she wasn‘t worried about seeing her deceased husband’s image on James. “I wasn’t expecting a lot there, except to see a man who’d had major surgery,” she said. Photographs of Mr. Helfgot and of Mr. Maki before and after the surgery also drive home the point that none of the faces looks too much like the other.
Now, 18 months after the operation, she says the only recognizable feature is her husband’s nose. “The nose is the same nose, but then again, how different are noses really? I mean, if I passed Jim on the street and didn‘t know he had Joseph’s nose, I wouldn’t say, ‘You know, that nose is really familiar.’ ”
Because a transplanted face is linked to a different brain, Susan says face transplant recipients don’t look like the donor. “Many of us have had the experience of saying a child looks ‘just like Uncle Harry.’ In fact, he may not look anything like Uncle Harry, but his expression is exactly like Uncle Harry’s. You’ve got all these nerves that are orchestrating your facial movement, so when we look at each other, a lot of what we see is not just that physical face but the expression that’s being made.”
James, on the other hand, says he’s never given it a second thought. “I wouldn’t even bother comparing it to how I looked before,” he said. “This is my face, and it’ll be my face for the rest of my life.”
Though he’s come a long way, James has a long way to go for full recovery. According to the Post-Gazette, he has no lower teeth and will get dentures to fill out his lower jaw. Surgeons will then remove extra tissue from his cheeks in another procedure. Though he says some small children find his image a bit scary, his exposure from local news appearances have made him well-known around Boston and adults will often approach him to tell him he looks great.
Before the transplant, James’ doctors estimated that his face was only “25 percent normal.” Once he undergoes his final revisions within the next year, they expect him to be “85 to 90 percent normal” as he develops connective tissue with his new face.
In the meantime, Susan has co-authored a book about the unlikely circumstances that bore their friendship, “The Match: Complete Strangers, a Miracle Transplant, Two Lives Transformed,” which was published this month.
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OBAMAWORSHIOER
Posted on October 26, 2010 at 11:02amThank you editors and writers for making trivialty a feature of this tabloid. You’ve ear4ned every penny we are paying you.
Report Post »sabrinacle
Posted on October 26, 2010 at 2:33amoy vey. I have seen the faces of three people now with facial and partial facial transplants and they all look terribly grotesque. I suppose the ability of this man to eat and breath is the most important part. Certainly not the way it looks, but in my opininion, this surgical precedure is not ready for human trials yet…if ever. There should be more work on growing your own skin and cartilage. There has been success with ears and other parts. This is so sad, but the woman seems content with her descision and the man seems to appreciate it. Guess its good
Report Post »joseph Fawcett
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 6:56pmIt is amazing and heart warming too. I wonder if I could go through having a donors face as mine. I pray I never have to find out. All the best to James and with the book too.
http://www.josephfawcettart.com western artist
Report Post »Marylou7
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 6:28pmThat is so amazing and heartwarming.
Report Post »LasVegas Lady
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 6:24pmThis was a nice feel-good story…you political guys need to give it a rest
Report Post »temple62
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:55pmOne of the greatest moments of my life was to meet the Cleveland surgeon, Dr. Siemionow who is one of the leading face transplant surgeon in the world, glad there are others doing this miracle work! We need more dedicated people like this in the world and fewer government career politicians. These politicians crawl out of their cave with stories of all their public successes then quickly disappear serving themselves until the next election!
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:11pmThis is a nice story. Why such a negative reaction from people? Even Glenn Beck has feel-good stories on his TV or radio shows from time to time.
Report Post »SummerB
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 6:55pmI agree. You saw the headline & if doesn’t interest you, move on! I happen to be very pleased with the stories (& blog) on the blaze. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Meredith!
Report Post »specialkay
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:08pmAmazing!
Report Post »eteme
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:40pm25 yrs. from now…Don’t like your face just “grow” a new one in a dish. Life is stranger than fiction sometimes.
Report Post »snowleopard3200
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:49pmAgreed, sometimes things we think are fiction or wild sci-fi come to life…the first computers were about the size of a small building, and I recall one developer stating that “I can imagine a computer being smaller than 10 tons in mass.” (The quote is along this line). Wonder what he would have thought of the laptops and I-Phones of today.
Report Post »OBAMAWORSHIOER
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:38pmMeredith, I want to personally thank you for earning the Soros money we sent you to post totally irrelevant stories. You guys have really done terrific. Increase these type of articles so that people here don’t do anything for the Nov 2nd elections.
FYI, I’m recommending to Soros to double you and the others salaries. We will match or exceed anything Glenn pays you Many other goodies await you after we win on Nov 2nd.
Report Post »Danglinbags
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:46pmAbsolutely. Seksie party at my house on Nov 2, right?
Report Post »snowleopard3200
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:47pmObviously you missed this earlier
@OBAMAWORSHIOER
You have made many posts that can be taken as threats from the Progressives, and claim to have the “We know who you are, where you are, your ISP” info. So if you have all of this info at your fingertips here and now then this is the challenge I offer to you…
Post the info you have on myself, let us indeed see the info you claim to have access to, and then you post it here in this part for everyone to see…
All I can say to you is this…prove me right or prove me wrong…just prove it.
Report Post »ME
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:48pmYea I wonder about this as well I come here for news sorry but this is a waste of time. If I want some feel good crap I can find it on Oprah.
Report Post »Jezreel
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:05pmObama worshipper is Jennifer Petrov!
Report Post »A Steiger
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:58pm@ OBAMAWORSHIOER
Report Post »snowleopard3200 just issued you a challenge. Are you going to man up and answer it?
Lesterp
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:31pmAmazing technology! Hope we can keep it.
Report Post »snowleopard3200
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 4:38pmThis is incredible. Thank God for him guiding people to develop another means of helping people out in situations such as this.
Report Post »snowleopard3200
Posted on October 25, 2010 at 5:12pmHow many other medical fields could this development aid for the restoration of such matters as destroyed tissues in muscles, tendons and such? As long as it does not reach the point of some ultra vain people wanting new faces for the hell of it, such as certain hollywood folks, I hope this will continue to aid many people in the years to come.
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm (mix art)
Report Post »michelepfaff
Posted on October 26, 2010 at 8:34amBrings tears to my eyes. Thank God for this technology and the giving hearts of people.
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