Man gets second face transplant after spending 3 months with no face

For the first time ever, a person successfully received a second face transplant after being without a face for three months, finally marking himself as a ‘man with three faces’.

Treating neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetic disorder causing severe disfiguring tumors on the face, 43-year-old Jérôme Hamon had his first face transplant back in 2010. Unfortunately, Hamon’s body did not accept the transplant.

Finally years later, surgeons and paramedics performed Hamon’s second face transplant in January this year, which, according to Hamon, gives him a feeling of being a 22-year-old. “It is his second transplant but his third face. This shows that a face is an organ like any organ that can be transplanted and re-transplanted,” said lead surgeon Dr. Laurent Lantieri.

Last year, Hamon’s body started showing signs of rejection of the face because of an antibiotic treatment he was given for fighting a cold that conflicted with immunosuppressive treatment he was being given to prevent the face’s rejection. Eventually in last November, doctors had to remove his face because of necrosis, reported BBC.

Stem cells to help grow replacement body organs

As per The Washington Post, till January Hamon remained in hospital without a face, not being able to hear, see or speak until another donor was found to carry out the second transplant and provide him with his third face. The donor found was a 22-year-old. “I’m 43 and the donor was 22 so I'm 22 again,” Hamon told French TV.

As per the doctors and medical staff, the entire time in his stay at the hospital, Hamon showed great strength and great spirit and not once did he complain ‘even when he was in the dark with no face for three months’.

Hamon too exclaimed that he has accepted his new face, “The first transplant I accepted immediately. I thought, ‘This is my new face,’ and this time, it’s the same. If I hadn’t accepted this new face, it would have been terrible. It’s a question of identity. But here we are, it’s good, it’s me.”

The achievement has been described as a breakthrough and no longer a field of research, “Today, we know that a double transplant is feasible. It’s no longer in the field of research,” said Lantieri.