At the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, Jérôme Hamon, who is seen on the left, was the first person to have two full-face transplants. He participated in the procedure with Dr. Laurent Lantieri.The credit goes to…Images courtesy of Getty Images and Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse

PARIS — The Some people have referred to him as the guy with three faces.

Not only did Jérôme Hamon of France become the first person to have not just one, but two complete face transplants, but he also became the first person to receive this designation as a result of his pioneering procedures.

Laurent Lantieri, a physician at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, was the one who carried out both of the surgical procedures. It was reported that Mr. Hamon was recuperating in the hospital after the second surgery that he had undergone since the beginning of the year.

Neurofibromatosis is a hereditary disorder that may result in facial abnormalities. Mr. Hamon, a French bookseller, suffers from this neurological condition. After removing Mr. Hamon’s whole face in June of 2010, including his eyelids and lachrymal system, Dr. Lantieri performed the procedure.

The bookseller’s face was replaced with a full-facial skin transplant by the surgeon, who used material from a donor who was 65 years old. Undoubtedly, the operation was a win. The blue eyes of Mr. Hamon were the only attributes of his that were kept throughout the years.

People are not gazing at me with fear and cruelty because I am not the one they are looking at. “I am a man among men, simply a happy man,” he wrote in the book “Have You Seen That Gentleman,” which was described as a book that described his experience.

Nevertheless, five years later, his brand-new life took a tragic turn, and it was all because he contracted the ordinary cold disease.

With the intention of treating his condition, Mr. Hamon took an antibiotic that he had been prescribed by a medical professional. However, the immunosuppressive medicine that was being administered for the transplant was not compatible with the pill. Within a short period of time, Mr. Hamon’s body began to reject his face.

Dr. Hamon was placed on the national transplant waiting list for a new face after the decision was made by the medical staff. At the same time as the first transplant was intended to improve his quality of life, they made it quite apparent that the second transplant was intended to save his life.

Gradually, some of the components of his first transplant started to die. A stiffening of the skin was seen. In the month of November, the doctors were forced to completely remove Mr. Hamon’s new face. Immediately after the removal of the transplant, Dr. Lantieri said that Mr. Hamon seemed to be a “zombie from ‘The Walking Dead’.”

In the absence of skin, the organism is vulnerable to recurrent microbial assaults, which may result in septicemia and, ultimately, death, as stated by Dr. Lantieri.

Picture

Before his transplantation, Mr. Hamon, who suffers from neurofibromatosis, shows his condition before the first operation, which took place in 2010, and after the second surgery, which took place this year.According to the Associated Press, credit goes to the Georges Pompidou European Hospital.
For over two months, Mr. Hamon was confined to a chamber that was very sanitized. He did not have a face. Due to the absence of lips, he was unable to move and was unable to absorb liquids, consume food, or breathe in a normal manner. The fact that he did not have ears made it difficult for him to hear. Due to the fact that he did not have eyelids, he was unable to see. In order to preserve his eyes, the physicians decided to artificially shut them.

Mr. Hamon would sometimes use a touch pad to write down words in order to communicate. However, Bernard Cholley, an anesthetist and resuscitator, said to French television that “while waiting, he never complained — he was even in quite a good mood.”

The further statement made by Mr. Cholley was that “it is simply an incredible ordeal that no one in the world has ever experienced.” “Everyone’s admiration for him is commensurate with the admiration that he has earned for his stoicism and his ability to confront the situation.”

Midway through the month of January, skin from a fresh donor was made accessible. The donor was a 22-year-old male from western France who had been ruled brain-dead. After receiving permission from the family, Dr. Lantieri separated the young man’s face from his body during the procedure.

In the United States of America, it is obligatory to identify oneself as a donor. However, in France, we adhere to the notion of assumed consent,” Dr. Lantieri said in a phone conversation that took place on Wednesday. “It gives us the ability to remove organs without proper consent. Having said that, we always make sure to have the family’s OK before we do a face.

To accommodate the donor, a prosthetic mask was fabricated. “Even though the family does not wish to see the deceased, we do so as a matter of respect,” Dr. Lantieri said. “We do because we want to show respect.” In the state of New York, the process has been used to replace the faces of patients who have passed away. “The level of lifelikeness is astounding,” Dr. Lantieri said.

Prior to Mr. Hamon undergoing the second transplant, the physicians replaced all of the blood in his body in a process that lasted for a month. This was done in order to get rid of any antibodies that may have been troublesome stemming from the prior procedures.

Following that, medical personnel started meticulously applying the new face to Mr. Hamon’s head at that moment. About thirty members of the personnel were part in the operation, which lasted for close to twenty-four hours.

As a result of the initial transplant, the blood vessels had a much worse quality, which made the process very challenging, according to Dr. Lantieri. “It’s not like lifting that at all. Everything needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.

But it was worth it in the end. At the conclusion of the procedure, Mr. Hamon’s face developed a reddened appearance of its own.

According to Dr. Lantieri, Mr. Hamon’s mother, Arlette Geffroy, stated, “I recognize him; it’s him,” when she first saw her son after his second transplant. This was the first time she had seen her son since the transplant.

Mr. Hamon is unable to consume food at this time, and he has difficulties communicating. He does not have a face that is a great match for his skull. He has shed a significant amount of weight, but his doctor reports that he is still very motivated.

The second face transplant that Mr. Hamon underwent lasted for close to twenty-four hours and included around thirty members of the medical team.Image courtesy of the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital, courtesy of Agence France-Presse and Images from Getty
According to Dr. Lantieri, “He is unable to move his face or have facial expressions at this time; however, he is experiencing sensations on his face.” However, he does not seem to be depressed. His behavior demonstrates that there is no refusal to accept him. I am fully certain of myself.”

It was said in a press statement issued by the hospital that “the patient, who is still hospitalized, was able to enjoy a first outing, with his final discharge expected in the short term.”

The announcement went on to say that the research demonstrated that re-transplantation is feasible for composite vascularized transplants (facial and hand) for the very first time anywhere in the globe.

The world’s first partial face transplant was done on a Frenchwoman named Isabelle Dinoire in 2005. Since then, there have been around forty face transplants conducted all across the globe, with approximately one fourth of them taking place in France. After her dog bit her, several of her facial features, including her nose, lips, chin, and portions of her cheeks, were replaced. In 2016, Ms. Dinoire passed away at the age of 49.

In 2008, a lady who wished to remain anonymous had the first face transplant procedure in the United States. The procedure took place in Cleveland. Following the attack that she suffered at the hands of a friend’s pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2009, Charla Nash, who was 62 years old at the time, got a complete face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 2011.

In addition to becoming the first person to undergo two complete face transplants and to go months without a face, Mr. Hamon was also the first person to be able to weep using the tear ducts of another person. This was all made possible by the operation that he underwent.

On Tuesday, Mr. Hamon made a statement on French television in which he said that he had changed his appearance from that of a guy in his 60s to that of a man in his 20s. “My age is 43,” he said. “The donor was 22 years old. This means that I am now twenty years younger.

The whole surgery, which included the transplant as well as the medicine, was paid for by the French public health care system, which incurred a total cost of over a quarter of a million euros, which is equivalent to around $309,000.

Those patients who suffer from severe facial malformations have reason to hope thanks to Mr. Hamon’s surgery. However, Dr. Lantieri, who has expertise in doing eight procedures of this kind, said that “it will never be a generalized practice.”

Ongoing operations continue to be quite delicate. It is not anticipated that they will become widespread because of the challenges involved in locating donors, the expenses involved, and the potential drawbacks of problems. Furthermore, it is quite unlikely that several face transplants would ever become commonplace.

The statement that Dr. Lantieri made was, “It is an experience that I do not want to live again.” I would not recommend it to him or to me.

The Frenchman who had face transplantation in 2010 is the first person to have a second transplant, according to the title of a printed version of this item that was published on April 20, 2018, in Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition published. Place an order for reprints | subscribe to today’s paper |