Evidently facial transplants have a long way to go yet
With the discharging of Oscar, the world’s first full face transplant patient, the progress made in the facial transplant field is nothing short of impressive.
To actually be able to take somebody else’s face and reattach it to a new host requires some high level medical and technological precision. It’s a sign of the times I guess on just how far we’ve advanced in these fields.
With the success of Oscar’s operation however comes the tendency to hype the breakthrough however and I think sometimes we lose sight of just how much further there is to go in this field.
At a recent press conference in Barcelona, when asked what her brother was most looking forward to, Oscar’s sister replied
He is looking forward to walking down the street without having people looking at him five times.
Regardless of how bad Oscar looked before, if he thinks people aren’t still going to stare at him if he walks down the street, I think his operation might have had unintended consequences to his neurological area.
Let’s face it, the guy still looks like a complete and utter freak.
Obviously somebody else’s face isn’t going to be a perfect fit but for now Oscar’s face looks like somebody stuffed an extra large condom over a pencil and drew a face on it.
The drooping cheeks do Oscar no favours and the lifeless hanging lips are scarily haunting to look at. Almost as if you’re looking at a corpse come back to life.
My first impression was an immediate comparison to Vincent D’Onofrio’s ‘Edgar’ character in the original Men In Black movie;
To top off Oscar’s problems, the poor bugger can’t close his eyes and has no feeling in his lips. This I imagine is going to lead to some pretty sloppy eating and I’ve got no idea how his eyes are kept lubricated.
Personally I’d find it a bit eerie to receive a face transplant from a donor. I mean sure I’m talking from the point of view of still having my original face intact but the idea just doesn’t sit right with me.
It’d be like having someone else’s organ in you but taking it to the extreme. I guess primarily because despite the importance of fingertips and other unique characteristics, your face makes up such a large factor in your physical appearance.
Having someone else’s face slapped onto you is as close to literally losing your identity as you’re going to get.
Regardless of how hideous Oscar still looks though it’s still a marked improvement over how he looked pre-transplant. Honestly I probably wouldn’t have written about it had his sister not decided the operation was a heralding to a completely normal life for the guy.
Yes he has a face now but unfortunately Oscar still looks like something out of Resident Evil. If you put Oscar in a zombie competition I’d bet the bank he’d come out on top.
Face transplant technology definitely has a ways to go before we start seeing credible aesthetically pleasing transplants but I guess this is a good start. Somebody has to be that first guinea pig. I mean it could have gone a lot worse… despite Oscar looking like the walking dead at least you get some sense that there’s a person under there.
Personally whilst I have no intentions of ever getting a face transplant I’m curious to see how the advancement of the technology plays out. As doctors get better at the procedure I really think it’s going to raise some interesting issues when it comes to identity theft.
If one day we’ve advanced the procedure to the stage where you’re able to change faces without any long term side effects and the operation is repeatable, good luck stopping greedy doctors offering the service to the masses.
Throw in some stem cell organic ‘grown in the lab’ faces, some desperate celebrities (Lindsey Lohan I’m looking at you), and you’ve got a multi gazillion dollar industry in the making.
I for one look forward to the future army of Angelina Jolies and Brad Pitts populating our little planet. Then think of what face transplants could do for the porn industry…
Throw in some backwater unlicensed third world country medical clinics and…oh my!
July 28th, 2010 at 5:33 am smithee(Quote)
You’re being very harsh on the guy. Previously he didn’t even have a bottom jaw. And while I agree that he still looks shockingly awful, it’s certainly a lot better than before.
Personally I think I’d have just wanted to die. You’ve at least got to admire this man’s bravery to go through with his tenth operation in hopes of actually having a future.
I don’t think I’d have the guts.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:51 am lemmiwinks(Quote)
The thing is, that picture is (I think) only 2 months after his operation? Nerves take a very, very long time to grow and repair. Look up that French woman who had the partial facial transplant a few years back. When it was first done she looked pretty much like that bloke, however, two years down the track the nerves have repaired and she has control over her facial expressions (well she can smile anyway).
It’s quite naive to think that a surgery as incredibly complex as a full facial transplant (the stuff of science fiction not so long ago) would go all “Face off”.
July 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
@smithee
I agree and I would have let it slide…. but Oscar’s sister seems to think he looks normal. I know she’s had to look at his disfigured face for a few years but the dude’s still gunna get stared at. At least while his face is just hanging there like that anyway.
Sidenote: How hot is Oscar’s sister in the linked news.com.au article photo. Imagine meeting her and then going home and meeting Oscar. What a kick in the nuts that’d be.
I can imagine waking up and him sitting there in a rocking chair just staring at me in the face with those dead eyes. Run Oz run!
@lemmiwinks
Yeah I know it’s still early days yet. Hopefully the marshmellow man puffiness goes down a fair bit and reduces the freakshow factor for him.
Like I said, I know this is the first run so nobody’s expecting it to be perfect. I’m interested to see how the tech develops though. Ultimately the goal would be to have mastered face transplants ‘Face Off’ style.