American undergoes face transplant after suicide attempt

A Michigan man has received a life-changing face transplant a decade after he attempted and survived a suicide attempt, according to the Mayo Clinic, the medical center that performed the surgery.

Derek Pfaff, a 30-year-old man from Harbor Beach, Michigan, suffered a tragic incident while attending college in which his face was seriously injured by a gunshot.

Despite undergoing 58 reconstructive facial surgeries over a 10-year period, Pfaff was still unable to eat solid food or have casual conversations with friends and family, according to a Mayo Clinic statement posted on the Mayo Clinic website. Tuesday.

He received a face transplant in February of this year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The procedure took more than 50 hours and involved a medical team of at least 80 medical professionals, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians, assistants and other specialists.

The complex transplant required replacing virtually everything under Pfaff’s eyebrows and parts of his forehead, including his upper and lower eyelids and intraorbital fat, upper and lower jaws, teeth, nose, cheek structure, neck skin, hard palate and parts of the soft palate. According to the Mayo Clinic.

According to the Mayo Clinic, according to preoperative facial nerve mapping, one of the most important aspects of face transplant surgery was ensuring that the donor and recipient’s delicate facial nerves—18 branches between the two sides—were properly connected to restore function.

A man can now smell, swallow, blink and smile for the first time in ten years after a face transplant.

“Heart is a life-saving operation. A kidney is, for the most part, a life-saving operation. Facial transplantation is a life-giving operation. You can live without it, but you are missing out on life,” Sameer said. Mardini, surgical director of the Mayo Clinic’s reconstructive transplant program.