Britains first face transplant given the OK

British surgeons will perform their first full face transplant later this year, the People reports.

The Royal Free ethics committee have given a team of specialists from London’s Royal Free Hospital the go ahead to perform the ground breaking surgery for the first time in the UK. This week Spain carried out their first full face transplant, which also included the transplantation of a tongue and jaw. Other cases around the world have been surrounded by publicity, French surgeons have carried out full and partial face transplants on so called Elephant Man Pascal Coler and also on Isabelle Dinoire (pictured) who was badly injured by her dog.

In December last year the United States performed their first face transplant surgery on Connie Culp, who’s husband blasted her face off with a shotgun.

Top UK plastic surgeon Peter Butler has told the press that his team of doctors are not considering cases of modern day elephant men, or anyone suffering from any injuries other than burns. His team specialises in burns treatment and they believe a burns victim is their best chance of success. The procedure involves completely removing the face from a donor and surgically reattaching it to the burns victim. The recipient will literally be wearing the face of a dead person, which is a fairly macabre concept not entirely unlike the character Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw horror movies.

On top of the restrictions on the lucky patient only being selected from applications by burns victims, the selected patient must also be a British citizen. Peter Butler has said his team will only accept applications from people in the UK, and they have already turned down many applications from disfigured foreigners.

Butler and his team have been given to go ahead to perform four face transplant operations, each one costs £25,000 to perform and is being funded by the charity organisation The Face Trust. The Face Trust are a charity specifically created to help fund research and surgical treatment for people with severe facial injuries.

You can help support The Face Trust by visiting their website and making a donation: The Face Trust: Support

If you yourself are a disfigured, British burns victim you can apply for the procedure online too: The Face Trust: Contact

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