Richard Lee Norris, Injured In Gun Accident, Gets Face Transplant

In this provided by the University of Maryland Medical Center, Richard Lee Norris is pictured after the face transplant.

By Sarah Brumsfield, Associated Press

BALTIMORE — A 37-year-old Virginia man injured in a 1997 gun accident has received what University of Maryland physicians say is the most extensive face transplant ever performed.

University of Maryland Medical Center officials announced Tuesday that Richard Lee Norris of Hillsville is recovering well after last week's surgery and is already brushing his teeth and shaving. The 36-hour procedure, which included teeth, tongue and upper and lower jaw, has given Norris his life back, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez said.

It was the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure seven years ago. Rodriguez says this one is the most extensive because of the inclusion of the tongue and teeth and because the incisions are farther back and less visible.

The first full face transplant was done in France in 2005 on a woman who was mauled by her dog. The Cleveland Clinic performed the first face transplant in the United States in 2008.

Check out these other organ transplant breakthroughs:

Loading Slideshow

• Double-Leg Transplant

  <strong>When and Where:</strong> July 2011, Spain A young man in his 20s underwent a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/double-leg-transplant-first_n_896442.html" target="_hplink">10-hour surgery in Valencia</a> just last Sunday to give him a new set of legs. Doctors hope that the patient will be able to walk with the help of crutches within about a year -- depending on how his nerves regenerate. A double-leg transplant had never been attempted before, in large part because in most cases of leg amputation, highly effective prosthetic legs can be used instead. The effectiveness of this surgery remains to be seen, but Dr. Pedro Cavadas, the doctor who performed the surgery, is hopeful. Dr. Cavadas <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/double-leg-transplant-first_n_896442.html" target="_hplink">also performed the first face and double-hand transplants</a> done in Spain. Photo Credit: Getty

• Artificial Windpipe

  <strong>When and Where:</strong> July 2011, Sweden Not only did this surgery mark the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/artificial-windpipe-transplant_n_892350.html" target="_hplink">first time an artificial windpipe was transplanted</a>, but it also marked the first time any synthetic organ had been transplanted. The windpipe was created in a lab in England and then coated in the patient's stem cells before the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/artificial-windpipe-transplant_n_892350.html" target="_hplink">12-hour surgery began</a>. These cells mean that he does not have to fear organ rejection, as most transplant patients do and is not on any sort of immunosuppressive drugs.

• Full-Face Transplant

  <strong>When and Where: </strong>March 2010, Spain Also performed in Spain, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/oscar-first-full-face-tra_n_659196.html" target="_hplink">world's first full-face transplant</a> occurred just last year (the first partial-face transplant happened in 2005). The patient was a 31-year-old farmer who had accidentally shot himself in the face a few years prior. He is still undergoing physical therapy, although much of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/oscar-first-full-face-tra_n_659196.html" target="_hplink">sensation in his face has returned</a> and his muscles have developed. Only a week after the transplant, he began to grow a beard. The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/face-transplant-press-conference_n_859391.html?" target="_hplink">first full-face transplant in the United States</a> occurred this past May.

• U.S. Double-Hand Transplant

  <strong>When and Where:</strong> May 2009, Pittsburgh Although it was the ninth double-hand transplant in the world, the nine-hour surgery marked the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/double-hand-transplant-ge_n_198538.html" target="_hplink">first time that this procedure had been done in the United States</a>. Georgia native Jeff Kepner, 58, had lost his hands 10 years earlier to a bacterial infection. Although the surgery was an initial success, Kepner is <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/26/double.hand.transplant/index.html" target="_hplink">still undergoing intensive physical therapy</a> and has not regained full control over his new apendages. Photo Credit: Getty

• Technological Innovation

  More and more, technological innovation is the driving force behind saving lives through transplantation. At recent TED conferences, two lectures were given that clearly demonstrated the exciting progress that is on the horizon. At TEDMED 2010, thoracic surgeon, Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, M.D., <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/31/tedmed-2010-superorgans_n_811894.html" target="_hplink">showed the audience a machine that allows an organ to survive</a> for an extended period of time outside of the body at a normal temperature. This allows an organ to be examined and treated before it is put into the recipient's body. Keshavejee demonstrated the machine's efficacy by allowing audience members to come up at touch a live pig's lung that had been recovered earlier that day. At a TED conference this past March, <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-surgeon-kidney-ted-stage.html" target="_hplink">Dr. Anthony Atala used a bioprinting machine</a> to print out the mold of a human kidney. As this technology is developed further, scientists hope that it could eventually (most likely not for years) lead to the ability to print out fully-functional, artificial organs.

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Comments

[hammergonewild]

07:55 AM on 03/30/2012

That's some damn fine craftsmanship!

[earthinretrograde]

07:55 PM on 03/29/2012

I wish that Fakhra Younus could have had a face transplant. Maybe that would have been easier on her than all those surgeries. Maybe she would be alive today.

[tfcrow]

05:28 PM on 03/29/2012

Faceoff!

[Totto]

09:08 AM on 03/29/2012

Get a gun, lose your face.

[Ami Munro]

08:20 PM on 03/29/2012

or lose your life.

[Romansten10]

07:44 AM on 03/30/2012

Guns can't do that on their own. People who do not know how to handle guns should not touch them at all. The are for protection. People who have never learned to used them, don't understand them. What happened to that man was an accident, and now he has a face again. praise the Lord for that.

[Sweat Hog]

12:56 AM on 03/29/2012

I wonder if they'll become obsessed with the donor. If I received someone else's face after they were done with it, I'd really want to know who they were and would want to see pictures. It's got to be a mind boggling experience.

[JBCinSD]

07:51 PM on 03/28/2012

Since I don't support guns for anyone except law enforcement officers, I hope I didn't have to pay any part of the enormous costs for all this guy's medical procedures.

If employers can opt out of paying the small cost of birth control on moral grounds, shouldn't I have the right to opt out of paying for any gun-related medical treatments?

[Christopher Eric Kulbeda]

11:04 PM on 03/28/2012

No.

[basinr]

07:23 PM on 03/28/2012

wow Imagine were medical procedures will be in a hundred years ?

[Griff McMuff]

02:15 PM on 03/29/2012

To play "devil's" advocate: I think we're messing with stuff that shouldn't be messed with. Organisms die; it's cruel but that's the way the universe works. If you believe in god then you believe humans are special and unique and you act accordingly, which of late seems to contradict much of what some of the bible, at least, instructs. If you believe in reality you believe humans are unique on earth but they are not special and you go about your life as if it's the only one because it is the only one and when you're dead you're fertilizer in a box. Can you imagine the destruction if we eradicated pretty much all death except for natural causes? Death is nature's lawn mower.

[neilgodfreyy2k1]

06:20 PM on 03/28/2012

Apparently this "gun accident" involved him shooting himself. If it was a suicide then this bloke doesnt deserve a new face. More information please so I can make a better judgement

[Griff McMuff]

02:17 PM on 03/29/2012

Hmmm very compassionate of you. You never make even a teeny tiny mistake in judgement?

[katbozues]

09:10 AM on 03/30/2012

more info?...ok....my stepfather is a pilot with angel flights and he has transported this remarkable man on several occassions to surgeries...it was NOT a suicide attempt...it was an accident...it was his grandfather's gun, he was handling it, it fell out of his hands, hit the ground and went off...unfortunately he happened to get hit...please don't jump to conclusions about ANYTHING until you know the truth..

[neilgodfreyy2k1]

06:13 PM on 03/28/2012

He could at least smile.

[Anybodyseenthepopos]

02:10 PM on 03/28/2012

WOW. Just amazing!

[robXdion]

02:08 PM on 03/28/2012

I think I saw the picture of this guy after the gun accident. Around 2000-2001 there was a picture floating around the internet of a guy with the bottom half of his face completely blown open. It was a bloody mess. He looked like one of those hybrid vampires in the last Blade movie with the splitting lower jaw. The story was the guy in the pic was in a motorcycle accident. But the wound was blown outward. It looked like he lit an industrial-strength firecracker in his mouth.

[neilgodfreyy2k1]

06:14 PM on 03/28/2012

I remember that photo. brings back memories

[SlimLovin]

02:07 PM on 03/28/2012

Yikes! I bet the farmer in that slideshow who got the first ever face transplant wishes he had waited for this updated, non-googly-eyed Cabbage Patch model.

[brio228]

01:29 PM on 03/28/2012

This is truly amazing. He looks great. Congratulations to the doctor and best wishes to the patient.

[tbabalis]

01:15 PM on 03/28/2012

wow, we've come a long way in health.

[vinniedog]

10:37 AM on 03/28/2012

A new face ?? they should have given him one of Camerons , he seems to have several spare