Brigham and Women's Hospital surgeons last week performed the first full face transplant in the United States, attaching a donor's face to a young Texas man who suffered severe burns in a horrific electrical accident in 2008, the hospital said Monday. Dallas Wiens, 25, lost all of his features -- except for a small portion of his chin -- when a cherry-picker he was working on maneuvered into a live wire. In a statement released this morning, the Brigham said that a team of more than 30 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and residents worked for more than 15 hours to replace Wiens' facial area, "including the nose, lips, facial skin, muscles of facial animation and the nerves that power them and provide sensation." The transplant extended from the mid-scalp to his neck. Wiens' grandfather, Del Peterson, told the media, "Definitely it's a miracle. When I first saw him after the injury I had no idea what would follow. This is beyond anything I had imagined."
