In the coming decades as this technology is perfected I’d like to see it used on our boys who got hit with IEDs to see if they can’t get their looks back.
From the American Organ Transplant Association website:
The Department of Defense is hoping that it will be able to use the findings from the transplant (of Dallas Weins) to aid in the creation of treatments for soldiers with facial wounds that are considered severe. The Pentagon is the country’s leader when it comes to funding research on facial transplants. Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and The Cleveland Clinic have received millions of dollars to fund face transplants. The doctors and researchers that are involved in the surgeries are contributing to a collective knowledge that will help soldiers that have been disfigured in combat – some of them so much so that existing procedures were of little use.
Earlier this year, the military identified its first candidate from the ranks of the enlisted to be considered for a facial transplant. The procedure is still considered experimental, so the military has moved with caution, but with the success of Dallas Weins’ transplant, there seems to be some eagerness to help the men and women in uniform.