He received a new nose, lip, skin, muscle, and nerves from an already deceased person. The operation was paid for by the U.S. military which wants to use this knowledge for this operation to use it for their soldiers who have severe wounds on the facial area. Weins, however will neither look like his old-self or the donor, but just barely in between. The operation was done by over 30 doctors, nurses, and staff at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. The operation itself took over 15 hours which occurred just last week.
The accident itself which caused Weins to go through this operation happened when he was painting a church in November 2008. He hit a power line which caused him to go blind and most of his facial features were burned out. The operation did not restore his sight and because his nerves were so badly damaged he may not be able to feel some parts of his face. Weins recently talked to his family on the phone and is happy to be alive.
Weins said he could either choose to be bitter or get better and he chose to get better. Weins spoke to the public before the transplant about how he wanted to smile again and feel kisses from his daughter, Scarlette, 3. Weins said, “She says, `Daddy has a boo boo, but God and the doctors are making Daddy‘s boo boo all better, she doesn’t care and she never has since day one that I was disfigured.”
The surgery, paid for by the Defense Department gave the hospital around $3.4 million to make this operation possible. The world’s first face transplant was done in 2005 by a woman in France who was mauled by her dog.
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