Another Article
(LOUISVILLE, KY, Saturday, November 15, 2003, 6:50 p.m.)-- At first mention, a face transplant may sound a little like science fiction. But doctors and researchers at the University of Louisville are quick to remind us that there is a desperate need for this type of medical advancement. As medical reporter Lori Lyle explains, those same researchers could soon turn this need into reality.
It's not soon enough for our veterans of World Ward Two who brought home injuries too severe to repair.
But perhaps it will be soon enough for our men and women on the front lines of today's battlefields.
"They've survived an artillery shell or conventional weapon that has blown away most of their recognizable face," says Doctor Gordon Tobin, director of Plastic Surgery at U of L.
"Our team was the first to open research into the area of transplanting parts of the face," said Dr. Tobin.
They hope to soon change the face of plastic surgery... literally. Dr. Tobin tells WAVE 3 News that for people who lose all of their lower face, cheeks, lips, those area's cannot be rebuilt.
And for the person getting the transplant, it would not be them. Nor would it be the donor. According to Dr. Tobin, it would be someone new, normal in appearance, but not what was there before.
People who could benefit from this are children that have been mauled by dogs, and burn victims like those in the World Trade Center attacks or the Carrolton bus crash.
The research started in the mid 1990's with a drastic boost from the success of the hand transplants. But there's overseas research too, in Great Britain, and talk of soon interviewing patients.
"I'm not surprised they're ready. Because from a technical stand point, not only are we ready now but we've been ready for many years. But it's the throughness... the attention to every detail," says Dr. Tobin.
Researchers here say it's not a race. That research in their labs is more focused on being right than first. Local researchers are also offended by oversea's comparisons to Hollywood movies. "I find in that a lack of seriousness about the plight of the people who are truly in need for this," said Dr. Tobin.
It's not an issue of vanity, but there is controversy. "Like the hand, this is not necessarily to sustain life it's not like a heart transplant that without it you die. However, you have to add to that equation... what makes life worth living," said Dr. Tobin.
U of L's Doctor John Barker is actually heading to London next week to speak at a debate on face transplants there. He's part of Tobin's team along with the hand transplant experts.
Tobin is hesitant to talk timetables, saying they are several months to a few years away. Dr. Tobin says they're not ready to start talking to patients here just yet, but that the psychological interviews will be one of the most important steps.
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