Spanish doctors conduct full face transplant

Doctors at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron University Hospital say that they were able to carry out the world's first full face transplant on a man who had been in an accident. They gave the man a new nose, lips, teeth, and cheekbones during the 24 hour surgery. The surgery, which happened in March and required thirty doctors, had good results. He came out of the surgery fine and will have some slight scars, but he is satisfied and very grateful for the surgery. There have been partial face transplants in other parts of the world, but this is the first full face transplant ever attempted.

I can't believe that our medical technology and knowledge has progressed to people being able to get full face transplants. I don't see how it would work out; it must have been very difficult to pull this surgery off. But I think that this is a good thing. If we can perform face transplants, what will we be able to do next? This surgery gave a man who had been in an accident another chance at life. This is a very good thing, but I don't know if this will be of much help to many other people. Is it worthwhile to spend so much time and energy on this kind of surgery when that time could be devoted to worldwide problems, like cancer?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/24/spain.face.transplant/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+(RSS%3A+Top+Stories)