First US face transplant revealed
Despite the fact that this is a news item in the US, I have chosen to write about it because it made a deep impact on me.
Connie Culp, 46 years old, was shut on her face by her husband in 2004. The bullet destroyed almost all the bones of her face. She was left without nose, mouth, teeth and cheekbones. Plastic surgeons operated her several times but they could not really give her hope for a new face in a short period of time.
Dr Sieminov and another eleven surgeons operated Ms Culp for the last time using the face of a donor woman who had recently died. The surgery took 22 hours but it was a success. Ms Culp can eat and breathe now in a normal way. During a press conference she played tribute to the family of the donor woman.
My opinion
My feelings about this news item are divided. In the first place I am thankful that we live in an age where science can help us to improve (and even save) our lives. In this case, it is wonderful that somebody can get a face again after such a tragic accident.
On the other hand, we have to deal here with the ethic and psychological effects of this kind of surgeries. Should we use the faces (or other organs) of dead people to help others? Is it not very shocking for the family of the donor to see its face in someone else his/her body? What about the patients? Are they not going to fall into a depression after seeing their selves in the mirror and not being able to recognize the person they see? What about the children of the victims and other family members?
For me, the idea of “wearing” the face of a dead person seems very morbid, but I understand that people like Ms Culp are very thankful and happy with it.
Jessica van Bragt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8035316.stm
Face transplant US
Despite the fact that this is a news item in the US, I have chosen to write about it because it made a deep impact on me.
Connie Culp, 46 years old, was shut on her face by her husband in 2004. The bullet destroyed almost all the bones of her face. She was left without nose, mouth, teeth and cheekbones. Plastic surgeons operated her several times but they could not really give her hope for a new face in a short period of time.
Dr Sieminov and another eleven surgeons operated Ms Culp for the last time using the face of a donor woman who had recently died. The surgery took 22 hours but it was a success. Ms Culp can eat and breathe now in a normal way. During a press conference she played tribute to the family of the donor woman.
My opinion
My feelings about this news item are divided. In the first place I am thankful that we live in an age where science can help us to improve (and even save) our lives. In this case, it is wonderful that somebody can get a face again after such a tragic accident.
On the other hand, we have to deal here with the ethic and psychological effects of this kind of surgeries. Should we use the faces (or other organs) of dead people to help others? Is it not very shocking for the family of the donor to see its face in someone else his/her body? What about the patients? Are they not going to fall into a depression after seeing their selves in the mirror and not being able to recognize the person they see? What about the children of the victims and other family members?
For me, the idea of “wearing” the face of a dead person seems very morbid, but I understand that people like Ms Culp are very thankful and happy with it.
Jessica van Bragt
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8035316.stm
Face transplant US
Hi Jessica - note that we need a few more blogs from you before the end of the course (12 in total). Otherwise it all looks good. Here are some comments on two randomly chosen blog posts. My corrections/comments are in [brackets].
ReplyDelete[Make sure you focus on UK-related news, not US!]
[Don't do subparagraphs - separate paragraphs by adding blank lines.]
First US face transplant revealed
Despite the fact that this is a news item in the US, I have chosen to write about it because it made a deep impact on me.
Connie Culp, 46 years old, was [shot in the] face by her husband in 2004. The bullet destroyed almost all the bones of her face. She was left without nose, mouth, teeth and cheekbones. Plastic surgeons operated [on] her several times but they could not really give her hope for a new face in a short period of time. []Dr Sieminov and another eleven surgeons operated Ms Culp for the last time using the face of a donor woman who had recently died. The surgery took 22 hours but it was a success. Ms Culp can eat and breathe now in a normal way. During a press conference she [paid] tribute to the family of the donor woman.
My opinion
My feelings about this news item are divided. In the first place I am thankful that we live in an age where science can help us to improve (and even save) our lives. In this case, it is wonderful that somebody can [have] a face again after such a tragic accident. []On the other hand, we have to deal here with the ethic[al] and psychological effects of this kind of surger[y]. Should we use the faces (or other organs) of dead people to help others? Is it not very shocking for the family of the donor to see [his or her] face [on] someone else []? What about the patients? Are they not going to fall into a depression after seeing [them]selves in the mirror and not being able to recognize the person they see? What about the children of the victims and other family members?
For me, the idea of “wearing” the face of a dead person seems very morbid, but I understand that people like Ms Culp are very thankful and happy with it.