A hospital of New York managed for the first time transplanting a whole eye, half face included, to a 46-year-old patient who had suffered a serious work accident in which he lost his nose, his mouth and his left arm.
The transplant, which It was done in Mayinvolved a team of more than 140 surgeons, nurses and other health workers, and lasted approximately 21 hoursas explained by the institution, NYU Langone Health, in a statement this Thursday.
The patient, Aaron Jamesis an Arkansas veteran who was working as a high-voltage electrician when suffered a brutal accident in 2021, when his face touched a high tension cable.
Even after undergoing reconstructive operations, James lost “his left eye, his left arm above the elbow, his entire nose and lips, his front teeth, his left cheek, and his chin down to the bone.”the health center detailed in a statement.
During these operations, surgeons decided to cut the optic nerve as close to the eyeball as possible so that the patient would have more options in the future, which ended up allowing eye transplantation.