Face transplant recipient Dallas Wiens, of Fort Worth, Texas, takes questions from members of hte media during a news conference at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. -- PHOTO: AP
BOSTON (Massachusetts) - A YOUNG father who was terribly disfigured in an electrical accident showed off his new look on Monday alongside doctors who performed the United States' first full face transplant.
Visibly moved as he described how his young daughter called him 'handsome' and how the first whiff of hospital food was so tantalising, 26-year-old Dallas Wiens said there were no words to thank the anonymous donor and his family.
'I can never express what has been done, what I have been given,' said Mr Wiens at a press conference with doctors who performed the operation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the north-eastern city of Boston.
The world's first full face transplant was unveiled last year by doctors in Spain, a European feat that followed the first partial face transplant in 2005, carried out on a French woman who had been mauled by a dog.
Mr Wiens, who lives in Texas, burned his face off in November 2008 after the left side of his head touched an electrical wire while he was working up high in a cherry picker. The high voltage electrical wire destroyed his nose and lips and blinded him. Mr Wiens lost his left eye in the accident and has no light perception remaining in his right eye.
The hospital said Mr Wiens was not likely to resemble the donor. 'The underlying facial bones and muscle of the recipient will change the shape of the facial tissue graft from the donor and will largely determine its shape and final appearance,' it said in a statement. -- AFP
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