Polish Man Who Lost Face Gives Thumbs Up To Successful, Life-Saving Emergency Face Transplant
![Polish Face Transplant](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/228104/polish-face-transplant.jpg?w=248&f=6be620f4c90eb7d0635d4eccee771567)
Polish doctors miraculously performed the world's first emergency full-face transplant on a man involved in an accident, CBS News reported.
The transplant procedure would normally follow months or years after an accident because of the extent of preparation needed, but the 27-hour operation went without a glitch, said the doctors from Oncology Center in Gliwice.
A picture of the patient six days after the operation shows the man posing a thumbs up as he lies on the hospital bed with visible surgical marks on his face.
The doctors, led by Dr. Adam Maciejewski, added that the procedure was a life-saving operation and restored the man's face, jaws, palate, and the bottom sockets of an eye.
The 33-year-old man from Poland had his face ripped off while operating heavy machinery that cuts stone.
The first face transplant in the United States was in 2011, when Texan Dallas Wiens underwent the procedure at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The man had suffered a power line accident in 2008 as he was painting a church and was left with severe burns, facial disfigurement, and a blinded left eye. He recently wed another burn victim after the two met at a support group.