The story of a man without a face. Incredible results of a guy's face transplant after he shot himself in the face Shot himself in the chin

Volgograd, October 22. A 24-year-old Volgograd resident, wanting to please the girls, played Russian roulette and ended up in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound to his chin.

As the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Volgograd Region said, the day before a resident of the Voroshilovsky district met two girls. The young ladies suggested continuing further communication in the apartment on the street. Turkmen. Having taken alcohol and snacks, the youth had a feast. The guy really liked his interlocutors and, having drunk a fair amount, he decided to show off his weapon to them - a traumatic pistol. But the rather tipsy gentleman, without checking the magazine of the pistol, considered it unloaded. He invited his companions to play Russian roulette. The girls refused, but the “hero” did not give up. Putting the gun to his chin, the guy shot himself several times. The young man was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound.

The police found out that the traumatic pistol was legally registered in the name of the victim. An investigation is currently underway, and the gunman's license has been confiscated.

Last June, the Mayo Clinic, one of the largest private medical centers in the world, located in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, performed the first face transplant surgery in the history of this medical institution. This medical procedure, still extremely rare even in modern practice, literally united the fates of two completely different, but at the same time, people in the same circumstances - both attempted to commit suicide. Only in one case did it end with an almost completely destroyed person, in the second - death.

In 2006, 21-year-old Andy Sandness attempted to take his own life. The guy shot himself in the chin. The shot destroyed most of his face, but he survived. Once the man was in a stable condition, doctors tried to fix his face, but the absence of a jaw, nose and teeth did not allow for a high-quality restoration procedure. Be that as it may, the guy somehow recovered and returned back to his native Wyoming, where he found a job and even began to get used to such a life.

However, in 2012, specialists at Mayo Medical Center came up with the idea of ​​a face transplant. The procedure is incredibly complex and comes with enormous and numerous risks. But after some consideration, Sandness agreed to the operation.

“If you looked like I looked and experienced what I experienced, even the tiniest ray of hope would make you agree to do something like that,” Sandness told the Associated Press.

“This operation promised to give back not only my face, but my life.”

Preparation for the face transplant procedure took a lot of time. Over the next three years, Mayo Clinic doctors performed a total of about 50 training surgeries. In January 2016, Sandness was added to the list of people waiting for donors, with little hope of receiving the desired body part within the next few years. However, just five months later he received a call saying that they had found the right donor.

He turned out to be 21-year-old Kalen Ross, who committed suicide with a shot in the head. Since Ross was an organ donor, the doctors rushed to settle all the issues and sign the necessary documents. After some hesitation, his wife Lilly Ross, who was pregnant at that time, nevertheless agreed to donate her husband's face to another person. She explained her decision by saying that she would like to one day tell her son how his father was able to help another person even after his death.

The face transplant operation lasted as much as 56 (!) hours and required the work of more than 60 medical personnel, including several surgeons. It took doctors a whole day to separate the donor bones, muscles and skin alone. The surgeons spent the rest of the time reconstructing tissue and “tailoring” the new face to Sandness’s anatomical features, starting from the area below the eyes.

After 32 hours from the start of the procedure, doctors were able to transplant Sandness's nose, cheeks, mouth, teeth, lips, jaw and chin.

After the operation was completed, Sandness was not allowed to look at himself in the mirror for three weeks, but when the time came and he looked at himself in the reflection for the first time, he experienced a real shock.

“If you've ever lost something you've always had, you can imagine how I feel. And when you get the chance to get it back, you're less likely to turn it down,” Sandness says.

By the time he was able to realize that his face now actually looked quite normal, Sandness had been a full three months after the transplant procedure. He was then in the elevator and met a little boy who just looked at him. He just looked without being shocked, as was usually the case with children in a similar situation before the operation.

By now, the person has completely restored the ability to breathe freely, smell and eat in the same manner as he did with his previous face. Sandness is enjoying life and is now completely comfortable being in a crowd.

Youth is wonderful in any case, but it has one huge minus - youthful maximalism, because of which serious troubles often happen to young people, sometimes even tragic. It was for this reason that Andy Sandness attempted suicide at just 21 years old when he suffered from a bout of depression. After pulling the trigger, Andy instantly realized his mistake and begged doctors to save his life after being rushed to a Wyoming hospital. An instructive story of the tragedy of a former suicide and its moderately happy ending awaits you further.

This is what Andy looked like before he shot himself in the face with a gun.

After Andy was taken to the hospital, he was transferred to one of the largest private medical centers in the world, Mayo Clinic, where he met with plastic surgeon Samir Martini

Despite all efforts and numerous operations, doctors were unable to restore his face. Andy had no jaw, no nose, and only 2 teeth left.

"I couldn't quite accept my face. Finally, I asked the doctors, 'OK, is there anything else we can do,'" Andy said.

Andy continued to visit the medical center until he received a call in 2012 that changed his life

The fateful call came from a medical center, from which he learned that the center was about to launch a face transplant program and he was an ideal candidate.

After 3 years and many psychiatric evaluations, his name was added to the waiting list.

Doctors said that the wait for a donor could last up to 5 years, but a suitable candidate appeared after just 5 months.

Ironically, he also turned out to be a 21-year-old guy who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Unlike Andy's case, he did not shoot himself in the face, and he could not be saved.

Andy talks with his father Reed and plastic surgeon Samir Martini before surgery

After 56 operating hours, the team of doctors were able to perform a face transplant, completely replacing what Andy had below his eyes.

After the operation, Andy's face began to look much better, although it still needed correction

Andy had to wait 3 weeks before he could see the results of the operation, but his father encouraged him all the time, saying that he would be happy with the result

After recent surgeries to lift his face, his neck, and adjust the bones around his eyes (so they weren't so recessed), Andy was able to look at himself

“When you lose what you always had, only then do you understand what it’s like to not have what you lost. And when you get a second chance, you’ll never forget it,” Andy said.

While Andy's facial muscles were strengthening, he worked with a speech therapist to teach him how to use his new mouth, jaw and tongue to help him speak clearly again.

Andy looks like this now. A real miracle, isn't it?

Now Andy is enjoying his new face and is very excited about the fact that he can again smell, breathe normally and taste his favorite foods, which he has not experienced for 10 years

For now, he is enjoying his "anonymity." He visits public places and large events, can eat popcorn and not notice the gaze of others and not hear their whispers

Video about Andy's life before surgery

Now 31, Andy plans to move back to Wyoming, find work as an electrician and start a family.

On Friday, February 17, the American newspaper Chicago Tribune told an amazing story about how the suicide of one person gave the opportunity to start a new life for another person who tried to commit suicide. It all started 10 years ago in Wyoming...

In December 2006, two days before Christmas, 21-year-old Andy Sandness, an electrician's helper from eastern Wyoming, decided to take his own life. The reason for this was the deep depression in which the young man had been for several months. Andy considered himself a failure. He began to drink a lot.

Andy Sandness in 2006, before his suicide attempt

So that day, returning home after work, Sandness drank too much, reached into the closet and pulled out a gun. He looked at it for a long time, then loaded it and placed the barrel from below to his chin. Taking a deep breath, Andy pulled the trigger...

Simultaneously with the shot, the thought flew through his brain: “What have I done?!” Sandness miraculously survived. When the police arrived, he grabbed one of the patrolmen, his friend, by the hand and whispered: “Please don’t let me die. I don't want to die."

It was difficult to make out the words. The shot literally tore Andy's face apart. He lost his lower jaw; only two teeth survived in his upper jaw. There were no lips or nose left. He could hardly see out of his left eye.

Waking up in the hospital, Andy felt someone holding his hand. He turned his head with difficulty and saw his mother. Mrs. Sandness has always been described as a strong woman. No one saw her tears. But at that moment she could not contain her feelings.

Andy gestured that he needed paper and pen. His mother handed them to him. He wrote: "Forgive me." Mom replied: “I love you... It’s okay.” But Sandness understood how much pain he had caused his loved ones. And he was tormented by one question - how to live further?

He found the answer thanks to Dr. Samir Mardini. This doctor had just joined the Mayo Clinic. As a newbie, he was put on Christmas duty. And he examined Sandness first. Mardini assured Andy that restoring his face was possible. “You just need to believe. And I also need you to show strength and patience,” said the doctor.

Long, painful weeks of waiting began. Andy couldn't breathe on his own. Instead of a mouth, he had a narrow slit no more than two centimeters long. Even a teaspoon couldn't fit into it. I had to breathe and eat through tubes. Sandness could not look at his disfigured face and hung a large towel over the mirror in the room.

Mardini and his assistants developed a thorough treatment plan. First, they removed dead tissue and crushed bones. The surviving bones were connected with titanium plates and screws. The next step is to reconstruct the upper jaw using bone and muscle tissue taken from Andy's hip. Using the same method, we were able to partially correct the lower jaw. Another operation is to replace the eyelids using wires and surgical needles.

In four and a half months, Andy underwent eight surgeries. There was progress, but not as significant as everyone wanted. Sandness was discharged from the clinic. He returned to his native Newcastle, a town of 3,200 people in Wyoming. Relatives and friends tried their best to support Andy. He got his old job. In addition, he worked part-time on an oil rig.

He tried to convince himself that everything was fine. But that was not the case. He couldn’t even go to the store in peace. The adults immediately turned away. And the children, without hiding their fear and curiosity, looked at him like a freak at a fair. And every time he heard their ringing voices behind him: “Mom, why does this guy have such a scary face?”

But even with this it was possible to live somehow, Andy now recalls. What was it like to live with a prosthetic nose, which fell off every time Sandness went outside?! He always had to carry glue with him and run to the toilet to reattach his nose, at least for a couple of hours. In addition, it had to be constantly tinted so that it did not differ in color from the rest of the face.

His mouth was still a narrow slit. Andy carefully crushed any food and then sucked it into himself without chewing. “This cannot be accepted, it is impossible to come to terms with this. Both day and night you are haunted by one thought - what to do, how to fix this? Sandness recalls.

He stopped meeting with friends, did not go to the cinema, or to bars. His only entertainment was hunting. Andy went there late in the evening and returned home before sunrise. When the hunting season was over, he went to shoot at the shooting range, but so that no one could see him...

The only person Sandness interacted with besides his parents and brother was Dr. Mardini. Their relationship became more than just a doctor-patient relationship. This grew into a strong friendship. And Samir really wanted to help Andy.

Sandness visited the Mayo Clinic once a year for five years for examinations. The rest of the time he communicated with Mardini by phone or Internet. In the spring of 2012, Samir called him to tell him the good news - he had managed to convince the clinic’s management to launch a new program. Mayo will now offer face transplants. And Andy is confirmed as patient number one! Just need to be patient again...

Mardini made several trips. He visited Boston, Cleveland, Paris and other cities where doctors were already performing similar operations. Samir gained knowledge, mastered new techniques and technologies.

Dr. Mardini shows Andy a photo of his little children.

And all this time he asked Andy to carefully weigh and think about everything. “For now, these are still considered experimental operations. No more than 20 successful face transplants have been performed in the world. And your case is very complicated. There is another important point - your life after the transplant. You will have to take medications for the rest of your days to prevent rejection of donor tissue,” the doctor explained.

But every time Andy answered: “Just tell me, how long do I have to wait?”

Three more years passed. The Mayo Clinic made sure Mardini's team was ready for the first surgery. All that was left was to wait for the donor. And then another problem arose - an ethical one. Is it worth performing such a complex operation on a suicide? The clinic's management hesitated. It took Mardini a lot of effort to convince her colleagues that this was necessary. After all, the doctor said, we are transplanting livers to alcoholics! “I don’t think there’s a single person in the world who doesn’t deserve the right to a second chance,” Samir Mardini told colleagues.

Members of Dr. Mardini's team now remember how he drove them on Saturdays for three and a half years. They got together and rehearsed the future operation, bringing every movement, every action to automatism.

In January 2016, Mardini informed Sandness that Andy was on the US organ donor list. Now all that remained was to wait for the right opportunity. A donor was needed with the same blood type, tissue type, and facial size as Sandness. Moreover, the age difference should not exceed 10 years. Samir believed that it would take at least five years for such a donor to appear.

But in June he called Andy and said: “We have a chance.” The next day he called again: “The donor’s family agrees.”

In early June 2016, 21-year-old resident of Fulda (Minnesota) Kalen Ross, nicknamed Rudy, shot himself. He passed away, leaving his 19-year-old wife eight months pregnant. Lily Ross believes that Kalen could not come to terms with the fact that he was not able to find a decent job that would allow him to provide for his family.

Rudy left a note asking that his organs be used as a donor. And Lily decided to fulfill her husband’s last wish. “I want our son to know when he grows up that his father’s death helped another person survive,” she said.

Kalen Ross was physically healthy. Doctors were able to use his heart, lungs, liver and kidneys for a transplant. He also turned out to be the perfect donor for Andy Sandness. Lily Ross only had doubts about Cullen's face. The doctors convinced her that the person who receives Rudy's face would not look like him.

The operation was scheduled for June 16. Mardini himself wheeled the wheelchair in which Andy was sitting into the operating room. To distract his patient and friend, Samir showed him photographs of his small children. During the 10 years that the doctor and Sandness had known each other, Mardini managed to get married and become a happy father.

Mardini and Sandness after surgery

The operation lasted 56 hours. It was a real marathon. But, thanks to training, every member of the Mardini team knew what to do and how to do it. It took 24 hours to “remove the face” of the donor. It was not only about skin and muscle tissue, but also about bones and nerves. It took another 32 hours to transform that face into the new face of Andy Sandness.

First shave

The Mayo Clinic decided to talk about this case only now, in February 2017, when everyone was convinced that the transplant was successful. Andy Sandness was able to tell reporters himself how his life had changed. He can talk again, eat normally, and breathe on his own. “This is a real miracle. How can I better explain it to you? Just a year ago, I could only smile or blink in my mind. My brain gave the appropriate command, but my face could not carry it out. Now he can! - Andy said and smiled.

Sandness is now 31 years old. He lives and works as before in Wyoming. But he no longer hears frightened whispers or children's voices behind him. “I now have the most ordinary face, one of hundreds of thousands in the crowd, which does not attract attention. And that’s why I’m happy,” Andy said.

“I can smile again!” — Andy Sandness