Spanish face transplant recipient goes public

A Spanish man, identified only as Rafael has appeared at a press conference in Seville this morning to proudly show off his new face.

Rafael received a partial face transplant in January this year, only the ninth ever time the procedure has been performed with just one full face transplant also having been carried out by Spanish doctors just last month.

Rafael was born with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition which caused benign tumours to grow on his face, severely disfiguring him. Doctors said that after the tumours were removed the only option for Rafael to reconstruct his face would be with a tissue donation. The face transplant took 30 hours to complete and Rafael faced weeks in intensive care and also in a specialist burns unit.

Doctors are now happy that Rafael is healing well, he has regained feeling in his face where the donor tissue has been attached and can eat without difficulty. Rafael’s speech is still a little slurred as it may take months before his new face stops swelling and fully heals. The new facial tissue has already begun growing a beard, and Rafael has begun shaving for the first time as his condition meant he could never previously grow a beard.