12 May, 2011
About Face
A Texas man who endured severe electrical burns has received the first full face transplant in the United States, and is ready to go home to his family after months of recovery. Dallas Wiens, 26, was injured in November 2008 while volunteering at his church. While painting the church, his head came too close to the high-voltage power line above, and electrical burns caused him to lose nearly his entire face. He was in a medically induced coma for 90 days following the accident, where doctors performed several surgeries on Wiens.
Wiens survived the burns and was able to leave the intensive care unit, but needed to regularly seek treatment from Dr. Jeffrey Janis of Parkland Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Janis then contacted Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who is the Burn Unit director at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts. Pomahac has previous experience with patients like Wiens, having performed a partial face transplant in the past. But never before had he performed a full face transplant.
In mid-March, Wiens underwent a 15-hour full face transplant, marking the first ever full face transplant in the U.S. He received a donor nasal structure, nose, lips, forehead and facial skin as well as muscles and nerves for movement and feeling. His face did not look the same as it once did, and it did not resemble the donor either due to the shape of Wiens' skull and the addition of skin, fat and muscle, but Wiens was happy to have facial features and certain senses again. "When I woke up, and I was able to feel I had features again -- eyes and a nose and a mouth -- I even said out loud that this could not be medically possible," said Wiens. "But here I am today."
Right now, Wiens can feel pressure on his face. As time goes by, he will gradually be able to start moving his lips and face and feel light on his facial skin. Janis notes that this may take about six to nine months. Wiens is also able to speak a little bit, but this will improve over time as well.
But to Wiens, the most important outcome of this procedure was to regain feeling in his face so that he could feel his 4-year-old daughter, Scarlette, kiss him again. Scarlette was Wiens' main motivation while undergoing such a pioneering surgical procedure, and after she saw him with the new face, she confirmed for Wiens that the lengthy process was worth it.
Story excerpt courtesy of dailytech.com / Photo courtesy of Associated Press.
2 Corinthians 15:16-21 (NIV)
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Once we become children of God (as in an ongoing relationship with Christ Jesus) we are new creations. We are no longer who we used to be. Our lives are changed from the inside out.
Can you see how this man has changed physically since he got a face transplant? How has your life (and even face) changed since your heart transplant when you asked Christ to forgive you of your sins?
Write down what you think is different about yourself since you have become a Christ follower. What does your before and after picture look like?
Have you ever met a person who’s really excited about Jesus and talks about Him all the time and then you hear stories about how they used to be, before they got saved? It’s almost impossible that this person, who is joyful and trusting and praising Jesus, ever used bad words, had a negative and horrible attitude, and was so different than you know them now.
God has the ability to make us new creations. Thankfully, we are no longer what or who we used to be when we were living in sin. We are gloriously made new!
Share the story of Dallas Wiens with a friend. Ask them to share with you any changes that they’ve noticed in you since you’ve become a new creation. Hopefully, they’ll see that God can make a difference in lives and will want to make an about face, too.
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