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Boston Hospital Offers Face Transplants
AP via Myway ^ | 7-30-07

Posted on 07/30/2007 3:55:37 PM PDT by Dysart

BOSTON (AP) - Brigham and Women's Hospital has given a surgical team permission to perform partial face transplants to certain disfigured patients, a newspaper reported.

Brigham and Women's is the second U.S. hospital to make public its plans to offer the rare medical procedure, The Boston Globe reported. The first hospital was the Cleveland Clinic.

To date, only three partial face transplants have been announced worldwide. Two were performed in France, and one in China.

Critics argue that it's unethical to expose patients to the risks of a transplant for a non-lifesaving procedure. The newspaper reported that Brigham and Women's would sanction transplants only for patients already taking immunosuppressant drugs because that would reducee the risk of tissue rejection and infection.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who is associate director of the hospital's burn unit, said he's motivated in part by the "helplessness I feel when I have a very difficult case." He said he has seen four patients in recent years who might qualify.

Isabelle Dinoire received the world's first partial face transplant. Dinoire was severely disfigured in May 2005 by her pet Labrador. In November 2005, surgeons grafted the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman onto her face.

Dinoire's immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice, but she was given immunosuppressants that helped overcome the threat.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boston; face; surgery; transplant

1 posted on 07/30/2007 3:55:39 PM PDT by Dysart
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To: Dysart

Maybe they could start with the Hildabeast. Or Amy Carter. Or Rosie.


2 posted on 07/30/2007 4:09:50 PM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
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To: Dysart

Countdown to Helen Thomas pic. Five, four, three, two...


3 posted on 07/30/2007 4:15:12 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: garyhope

I was thinking John Kerry would be first in line, but he’d need to find two faces to cover his one.


4 posted on 07/30/2007 4:15:15 PM PDT by rabidralph
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To: rabidralph

” but he’d need to find two faces to cover his one.”

No kidding. Or maybe three or four or more!


5 posted on 07/30/2007 4:20:12 PM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
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To: Billthedrill
I know, I calculated no later than post 3. I’m encouraged...perhaps we’ve moved past that sort of thing here.

I must admit i pondered offering a HT pic myself, but if you think about it, this is phenomenal procedure and perhaps a funny picture doesn’t quite fit.

6 posted on 07/30/2007 4:20:38 PM PDT by Dysart
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To: Dysart

I read up on it a little. My initial reaction was “you can’t do that.” Amazing stuff.


7 posted on 07/30/2007 4:28:13 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Dysart
The problem with Helen Thomas is there is just SO much to do. Where do you start? It would take more than a face transplant to transform her. It's the soul, body, mind problems, too. She would be better off if "the cat" knocked on her door... Someone would have to scrape the poor thing off the ceiling, though. Those claws would be buried 6 inches into the soffitt.
8 posted on 07/30/2007 4:31:34 PM PDT by small voice in the wilderness ( Bumper sticker idea: Hillary/Obama Nation '08. Let the desolation begin)
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To: Dysart
Ya, I wanna know who anonymously sent me this link?!?!?
9 posted on 07/30/2007 4:33:07 PM PDT by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
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To: Dysart

I think they should test it on Cage and Travolta.


10 posted on 07/30/2007 4:33:34 PM PDT by isom35
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To: isom35
I think they should test it on Cage and Travolta.

Looks like Travolta's already had one.

11 posted on 07/30/2007 4:38:24 PM PDT by x
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To: garyhope

12 posted on 07/30/2007 4:40:20 PM PDT by Jay Howard Smith (Retired(25yrNCO)Military)
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To: Jay Howard Smith

Eeeeuuuuuwwww.


13 posted on 07/30/2007 7:55:29 PM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
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To: Dysart
Anybody wanna sign up to be a donor?
14 posted on 07/30/2007 8:52:32 PM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (Global Warming Heretic -- http://agw-heretic.blogspot.com)
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To: garyhope

Isn’t that like making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.


15 posted on 07/30/2007 9:03:10 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Taz Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge)
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To: Billthedrill
Ah yes, Helen Thomas, the Shar-Pei of the White House Press coprs.


16 posted on 07/31/2007 3:56:10 AM PDT by Covenantor (America's Fifth column is in the White House and Capitol)
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