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Face to face A Medical miracle and a backward step

by Gyanvitaranam

  

   Amedical photograph, which is sure to stun you into deep reflection, has been recommended for the celebrated Wellcome Photography Prize for 2019. It shows a real human face, surgically removed from a dead person three days earlier for transplant into a 21-year old woman.

   The team of surgeons staring at it is from a medical centre in Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.A.). The dramatic transplant was done in 31 hours, almost double the time taken for the removal of the dead face. 

   The first human face transplant was done, also in the U.S.A., in 2008, but it was only a 40 per cent success. In 2014 the second attempt achieved 90 per cent success. And in 2017,it was a cent per cent perfect. The recipient, Katie Stubblefield, who had suffered a terrible disfigurement, started a new life. She had earlier thought of committing suicide. The good news today is that she continues to do reasonably well. She is the....

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