First full-face transplant

[bixaorellana]

Daniel Woolls, Associated Press Writer – 48 mins ago
MADRID – A hospital in Spain says it has carried out the world's first full-face transplant, giving a man a new nose, skin, jaws, cheekbones, teeth and other features after he lost his face in an accident.

rest of article: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_he_me/eu_med_spain_face_transplant

Click here for more articles and images -->

[spindrift]

Yes, I saw that article in the Daily Mail this morning. It's amazing surgery. I hope the transplant will bond with the receiver's tissues although I know people have to take immuno-suppressant drugs for the rest of their lives.

I asked my consultant recently what he thought about lung transplants. Unfortunately he doesn't rate them highly. Limited success. Very limited.

I must make do with what I've got! (I can still go trekking)

[lagatta]

What is wrong with your lungs? COPD? You are MUCH better off with your own, even if their capacity is limited. Immuno-suppressant drugs are toxic themselves; it is a matter of a lesser evil. That makes me think of people I know who lived with AIDS, far longer than before tritherapy, though eventually that took its own toll.

[spindrift]

Asthma started when I was two years old. I inherited lung weakness from my father. Luckily my kids don't have it. Over the years I've progressed from bronchitis to pneumonia then finally something called BOOP...an auto-immune thing but I eventually recovered...and now it's just a weakness I must live with. I'm ok most of the time but every time I catch a cold it turns into bronchitis. It's amazing but I can cope with high altitudes - perhaps that has something to do with my strong mind.