Pole with life-saving face transplant goes home

An employee at a stonemason’s workshop with a face transplant, identified only as ‘Grzegorz’, is pictured next to his sister as he leaves a press conference yesterday Gliwice, Poland. The face transplant took place in May.

AFP/WarsawA Pole whose doctors claim has received the world’s first life-saving face transplant appeared in public for the first time yesterday as physicians said he was ready to go home. Identified only as Grzegorz, the 33-year-old wore dark sunglasses and walked with ease, but was unable to make himself understood when speaking to reporters at a hospital in Gliwice, southern Poland.The man, an employee at a stonemason’s workshop, was maimed on April 23, when a machine used to cut stone ripped out a large chunk of his face.The transplant – without which physicians claim Grzegorz would not have survived – took place on May 15 during a marathon 27-hour-long operation during which he remained fully conscious.The patient’s “speech should be back to normal within nine months”, Professor Adam Maciejewski, who led the team of transplant surgeons, told reporters. Grzegorz can “see, read and taste flavours”, his sister Barbara said. French doctors carried out the world’s first successful face transplant in 2005 on Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old woman who had been mauled by her dog, although her life was not in danger.