The United States has seen its second full-face transplant with Mitch Hunter… See the result below…
In April 2011, less than one month after the institution completed the nation’s first full face transplant, the face transplant team at Brigham and Women’s institution, lead by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, performed the nation’s second full face transplant on patient Mitch Hunter of Indiana. Dr. Bohdan Pomahac was in charge of the procedure. The operation was the third one of its kind to be carried out at BWH and the fourth one of its kind to be carried out anywhere in the nation.
Including the nose, eyelids, muscles of facial animation, and the nerves that power them and create sensation, the whole facial region of patient Mitch Hunter, 30, from Indiana was replaced by the team of more than 30 doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, and residents over the course of more than 14 hours of labor. This included the replacement of the facial nerves. In 2001, Hunter was involved in an automobile accident that resulted in his receiving a severe electric shock from a high voltage electrical line.
On April 9, 2009, a different BWH surgical team led by Dr. Pomahac successfully completed the first partial face transplant in New England. This operation was only the second of its kind to be carried out in the United States, and it was the seventh to be carried out anywhere in the world. Then, in March of 2011, a surgical team from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) executed the first full-face transplant operation in the United States. The Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Face Transplant Program is actively seeking appropriate individuals for face transplantation and is sponsored by a grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) of the United States. Find out more information on the face transplant surgery program that is offered at BWH as well as the research that led to the breakthrough.
Col. Janet Harris may be reached at janet.harris@usarmy.mil if you have any queries about the funding from the Department of Defense.
The Hunter family issues the following statement:
“The Hunter family wishes to express their deepest gratitude to the kind donor and his family for the wonderful gift that they have given. We are in awe of their bravery and appreciate their determination, and we want to commemorate them by carrying on in the same kind vein.
We are also extremely grateful to the many medical professionals who have helped Mitch get to this point. From the emergency medical personnel in North Carolina to Dr. Joe Molnar at Wake Forest University to Dr. Pomahac, his team, and the incredible group of medical professionals at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, mere words will never be enough to express our gratitude.
Visit his Facebook page at facebook.com/mitch.hunter3 for further information on Mitch Hunter.
History of Transplantation at BWH
Today, Brigham and Women’s Hospital is widely regarded as one of the most advanced transplant centers in the world.
In 1954, a team from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital headed by Dr. Joseph Murray successfully conducted the first human organ donor transplant, which was a kidney transplant from one brother to another. Dr. Murray was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the year 1990 for the work that he had completed in this field.
The Brigham and Women’s institution (BWH) is responsible for performing the first heart transplant in New England in 1984. This year, the institution successfully completed the 600th heart transplant.
In 1992, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital was the location of the very first heart-lung transplant in the state of Massachusetts.
In 1995 and 2004, respectively, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital was also responsible for performing the first triple organ transplant and the first quintuple lung transplant in the United States.
In 2008, more than 30 lung transplants were done at BWH, placing it among the top hospitals in the US for volume. In 2006, the hospital accomplished a milestone by doing one hundred kidney transplants in a single year for the first time in its history.