First Tongue, Jaw Transplant Carried out in Spain, page 1

First Tongue, Jaw Transplant Carried out in Spain

www.abcnews.go.com

August 21, 2009 MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish doctors completed the first ever transplant of a tongue and jaw Tuesday, surgeon Pedro Cavadas said Friday.

The 43-year-old patient, who lost the lower half of his face during treatment for a malignant tumor 11 years ago, is recovering well and could be released in 10 days, Cavadas told a news conference in Valencia.

The unidentified patient was given a tongue and jaw as part of a face transplant operation, the first carried out in Spain.

I think this is awesome! And makes me squeamish at the same time. It also makes me wonder why the U.S. has the most expensive medical care, yet we are never the first to do these wonderful life-improving surgeries. It's always somewhere in Eur-Asia.

This also raises other questions for me, such as, will everything taste the same as did before? Or will everything taste different? Does everything that has no discernable taste of it's own still taste like chicken? Or will it now taste like . . . rice? Or chocolate? Or broccoli? I think the follow up on this case could provide some very interesting insight about differences between humans.

The next surgery should be someone who had sight, lost sight and now has had an occular transplant. Do the see everything the same as far as shape and color, etc? Or is all of this really just programmed by our brains?

P.S. Please pardon some of my tongue-in-cheek humor.

www.abcnews.go.com
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[edit on 8/22/2009 by Nivcharah]