Beijing: China's first facial transplant patient is doing fine and doctors have described his recovery
as "beyond expectations," media reports said on Wednesday.
The nerves of the donated tissue received by Li Guoxing, a 30-year-old man, are alive and active, doctors at the Xijing Hospital in northwest China's Shaanxi Province said.
A hospital source described both the physical and mental condition of Li as "pretty good." Li underwent surgery on April 14, making him the world's second facial transplant patient. The video of the patient showed that the sutures on Li's face have been removed and the swelling of his face have gone down.
A nurse brought him eggs and steamed bread and the patient ate while listening to people chatting. He looked pleased, Xinhua news agency report said. Li's smile remains lopsided, as the nerves on the right
side of his face are not functioning properly, it said.
Guo Shuzhong, one of Li's doctors, said the transplants are one hundred per cent normal, adding that his speed of recovery is beyond the hospital's expectations. The patient will not leave his special ward for 30 days to prevent possible infections, Shuzhong said.
Li's face was injured when a bear mauled him in 2004. He was given a new cheek, upper lip, nose and an eyebrow from a single donor. Chinese doctors claim that the surgery on Li was even more complex than the world's first such operation performed in France on 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire, whose lips and nose were ripped off by a dog last November.
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