the U.K.'s first face transplants
A team of European surgeons is planning to do the first full face transplants very soon. The surgery has never been done anywhere in the world before. The doctors have worked on it for 14 years and believe that the surgery is now possible. They say that it will improve the lives of many people who have been in accidents.
The surgeons need volunteers to have the surgery. They have seen a number of possible patients but have not yet decided who will get the transplants. They are considering a young man of 22, whose face was burned in a house fire, and a woman from Venezuela, who was disfigured in a car crash.
The first transplant of part of a human face took place last year in France . A woman was attacked by her dog while she was asleep. She received new lips, a new nose, and a new chin. The donor died in a hospital earlier in the year. In China, doctors also claim to have done a face tranplant. They say they replaced part of the face of a man who was attacked by a bear.
After the attack in France, it was difficult for the woman to eat and speak, but she now has feeling back in her face . She has to take drugs every day so that her body does not reject the new face, but doctors are satisfied with the operation.
One of the European surgeons said, "We have done everything possible to prepare for this surgery, and now operations must go ahead . Of course, it is difficult psychologically for the patient to have somebody else's face, but some people never leave their house because they don't want to show their face. We can give them a new life