Brigham and Women’s site of nation’s second surgery of its kind
By O’Ryan Johnson and Jessica Fargen
Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Added 1m ago
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It took years of preparation, the perfect donor, a ready and willing patient and a trip to Brussels for a team of doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to perform the nation’s second face transplant.
Dr. Bohdan Pomahac said he and the seven other doctors who took part in the marathon, 17-hour operation Thursday were schooled by one of the surgeons who performed the world’s first face transplant in France.
“We have done this, in reality, quite a few times,” Pomahac said yesterday while the unidentified patient was slowly awakening from the successful surgery.
Pomahac said his European counterpart helped design the Boston surgery, then walked Pomahac and another doctor on the Brigham team through the process over a long weekend in Brussels.
They practiced the operation several times on cadavers. They also took dozens of pictures during the trial runs.
When the New England Organ Bank notified Pomahac on Thursday that a suitable donor was available, he and his team were ready.
Pomahac alerted his patient - a man whose face had been grotesquely disfigured in an accident.
“He asked, ‘How does he look?’ And I assured him it would be fine,” Pomahac said. “It’s very acceptable in all aspects. It really couldn’t be better.”
The team of seven plastic surgeons; one ear, nose and throat surgeon; nurses; anesthesiologists; and residents replaced the mid-face area of the patient, including the nose, hard palate, upper lip, facial skin, muscles of facial animation and the nerves that power them and provide sensation.
Stepping back to look at his work before heading to Causeway Street to catch a Boston Celtics [team stats] game, Pomahac pronounced himself happy with the results.
“He looks human again,” he said.
Kevin O’Connor, senior vice president at the organ bank, credited “a remarkable donor family.”
“Advances in transplantation only happen when there are individuals and families who can see past their own tragic circumstances and agree to donation,” O’Connor said.
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