Posted on 10 May 2011. Tags: department of defense, face transplant patient, facial muscles, first full face transplant, first public appearance, lips, nerves, s hospital, sensation, young man
The country’s first full face transplant patient made an appearance on Monday and said that the very first thing his daughter told him right after the operation was that he looked extremely handsome.
25-year-old Dallas Wiens joined his surgeons on Monday at the Bringham and Women’s Hospital for his first public appearance since his full face transplant in March. Wiens had a goatee and wore dark sunglasses during the interview. The young man had just survived a 15-hour procedure and is the first recipient of the full face transplant in the United States.
Wiens received new lips, nose, facial muscles, nerves, and skin from an undisclosed donor and yet, he said it feels natural. The entire costs for the operation were paid for by the U.S military with the hopes that the success of the operation will help the organization treat their soldiers with severe facial damage.
Wiens is not a soldier but his face was burned after he hit a power line in a church he was painting in November of 2008. He was also left blind after the accident.
Wiens’ face is still a little swollen when he faced a room-full of reporters and photographers but he said that his new face is amazing. He added that he easily adapted after the operation and he can now smell and breathe through his new nose again.
Bohdan Pomahac, the surgeon who operated Wiens, said that the operation went smoothly and the results came out better than what he had hoped for. Unfortunately, the damages on his face were so severe that the team of surgeons were not able to restore his sight and some of the sensation on his left cheek and forehead.
The hospital was given a $3.4 million research grant by the Department of Defense; enough to conduct full face transplants to four more patients.
Posted in Health
Posted on 27 March 2011. Tags: australian grand prix, car champion, christian horner, f1 world champion, fernando alonso, pizza, reliability, s lewis, team mechanics, young man
Sebastian Vettel, the world’s youngest title holder at the age of 23, made sure that he defends his championship title well. During the Sunday’s race, the young man kept a comfortable lead against McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
He insisted that it was not an easy race to win. He was not able to pull away from Hamilton on the early laps. He only bagged the 22-second winning lead when Hamilton’s car floor was damaged. However, Vettel said that he is very pleased with how the weekend turned out.
Even the F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso, and also a rival in this competition, said that Sebastian Vettel seemed to have been “on another planet” during the Australian Grand Prix.
The young race car champion humbly thanked his team mechanics and persisted that they treat themselves to beer and pizza. He joked about this the night before his game but after his victory; he thinks that a beer and pizza duo is a nice reward for the mechanics who, he said, have been working so hard.
Vettel even joked about pushing the KERS power boost pretending that he did not know it was not there. Christian Horner, team boss, decided that Vettel should not use the KERS power boost because of some questions about its reliability.
In the end, Sebastian Vettel said that it was a good race and that he learned plenty of things from the weekend’s race. He said that what he needs to do is move forward from this especially because it is still the first race for the season.
Posted in Sports & Recreation