Fort Worth Man Can Smile Again
First US full face transplant patient smiling
Monday, Jan 16, 2012 | Updated 12:30 AM CDT
Meredith Land/NBCDFW.com
The nation's first full-face transplant recipient Dallas Wiens shows his new blue eyes.
Ten months after becoming the first person to get a full face transplant in the United States, a Fort Worth man marvels at recovering the ability of expression.
Dallas Wiens was the only patient of the first three surgeries done in the U.S. who did not suffer an acute rejection of the transplant within the first six months. The 25-year-old Wiens can now smile and express emotion with a face he didn't have a year ago, he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Wiens' face was burned off in 2008 when his head touched a high-voltage power line while he was standing in an elevated cherry picker.
The Department of Defense funded the transplants though a $3.4 million grant with the hope of offering the procedures to wounded soldiers.
