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Jerome Hamon is the first person in the world to ever undergo two face transplants in his lifetime. This 43-year old french man is now being called “the man with three faces.” Since the first transplant done in 2005, there have only been around 40 operations done in the world.
Suffering from a genetic condition called Neurofibromatosis Type 1, Hamon is subjected to having disfiguring tumors all over his face, as well as anywhere else in the body. These tumors, otherwise known as Neurofibromas grow on or under the skin and occurs in only one in 4,000 people worldwide.
Source: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/
He received his first successful face transplant in 2010, but in 2015, Hamon caught a cold and the antibiotics a doctor prescribed him negated the benefits of the other medicines he was taking for his transplant.
Signs of face and skin deterioration started to occur in 2016, and because of the rejection of his body to the transplant, the doctors had to completely remove his face in November of 2017.
While waiting for a new facial donor to be available, Hamon was forced to spend two months of his life in a hospital in Paris without a face. Living without any eyelids, skin and ears, he could not talk nor eat anything.
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Finally, Hamon’s doctors were able to find a donor of a 22-year old and the second transplant took place in January 2018. Before they started the procedure, Hamon’s surgeon, Dr. Laurent Lantieri – who over saw his first transplant, and his team had to transfuse all the blood in his body to prevent another rejection of his new face.
Hamon’s first donor was from a 60 year old man, and now he looks much younger with the second donor. “I’m 43 and the donor was 22 so I’m 22 again,” Hamon told the BBC.
Although his skin and eyes are not completely aligned, in the same BBC interview, Hamon said he was “feeling well. I still have moments when I’m exhausted, but overall I feel well,” he said, in French.
“I accepted the first transplant immediately. I considered it immediately to be my new face. And this time it’s the same.”
