A French man has become the first person in the world to undergo two full face transplants. Jerome Hamon, 43, left hospital last week after undergoing groundbreaking surgery to put another transplant on his face after his body started rejecting his first face.
Mr Hamon, who has been dubbed ‘the man with three faces’, suffers form neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetic disorder that caused disfiguring tumours on his face. In 2010, he underwent the world’s first full facial graft which included tear ducts and eyelids.
Yet five years later, after he was given antibiotics for a common cold, which were incompatible with the immunosuppressant drugs he was taking, his body started rejecting his new face.
In November last year, complications mean surgeons had to remove the transplanted face, which left Mr Hamon without a face. For two months, the 43-year-old stayed at Georges-Pompidou hospital in Paris waiting for a new donor, until the face of a 22-year-old who recently died was found. Mr Hamon underwent the surgery on 15 and 16 January this year.
Mr Hamon is still unable to control his features but is happy that he has now left hospital. He said: ‘If I hadn’t accepted this new face it would have been terrible. It’s a question of identity… But here we are, it’s good, it’s me.’