Face transplantSFlbpatient had severe injuries

CLEVELAND (AP) — Her injuries were ghastly: no nose, no palate, no way to eat or breathe normally, a face so hideous that children who saw her screamed and ran away.

From the moment they met earlier this year, Dr. Maria Siemionow knew the severely disfigured woman would be the one — the first person in the U.S. to receive a face transplant.

“Our patient was called names and was humiliated. You need a face to face the world,” said Siemionow, the Cleveland Clinic reconstructive surgeon who led the operation about two weeks ago.

During the 22-hour procedure, 80 percent of the patient’s face was replaced with bone, muscles, nerves, skin, blood vessels and some teeth taken from a woman who had died hours earlier.

It was the fourth face transplant in the world, though the others were not as extensive as this one.

The patient’s name and age were not released, nor were details on how she was injured, and she did not appear at a hospital news conference Wednesday. Surgeons said she was doing well and showing no signs of rejecting her new face. She was still sedated and unable to speak much.Doctors believe she will eventually be able to eat on her own, breathe normally instead of through a hole in her windpipe, and exhibit a full range of facial expressions, including smiling and frowning.

Recipients run the risk of deadly complications and must take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent organ rejection, raising their odds of cancer and infections.

The patient had been so badly injured that only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left. Many more like her exist, and a military grant to the clinic will let them explore operating on soldiers. left severely disfigured, Siemionow said.