Regaining a life with a face transplant: "Now I don't mind going out on the street"

BarcelonaBefore arriving at Vall d'Hebron, Carmen had only heard the word No when a doctor visited her. While traveling in the Canary Islands, she suffered an infection that caused necrosis in the tissues of her face, leaving her completely incapacitated. She couldn't eat or drink, nor could she breathe properly; she was disfigured. "Physically, it was quite unpleasant," recalls the patient, who went through three different intensive care units (ICUs) without any alternative until she met Joan-Pere Barret, head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, who proposed a face transplant. "It was the only solution for me to be able to lead a normal life again. This doctor is my guardian angel," says the patient, her voice filled with emotion, four months after the operation. "Now I don't mind going out, I can eat again, I can drink coffee. I'm back to living a normal life," explains Carmen. A face transplant is a very complex procedure, and only six have been performed in the entire country, half of which were carried out at Vall d'Hebron. In fact, the Catalan hospital became the first center in the world to perform a full face transplant in 2010. This time, it was the world's first partial face transplant, with a donor who underwent euthanasia and decided to donate her organs and tissues, including her face.

Fifty-four face transplants have been performed worldwide, and only about twenty centers globally are equipped to perform facial transplants. Carmen's operation involved a hundred professionals from various specialties. Skin, adipose tissue, peripheral nerves, facial muscles, and facial bone are all transplanted: the surgery is extremely complex, as the structures to be reconstructed are small and have a complex three-dimensional structure. The operation can last between 15 and 24 hours in total. "It's not just putting on a mask," the doctor emphasized.