Ankara, Jan 22 (IANS) Doctors in Turkey Saturday began the country’s first ever face transplant surgery on a 19-year-old Turkish national, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The face of a 45-year-old donor named Ahmet Kaya is to be transplanted to Ugur Acar, whose face was almost completely damaged by a burning blanket when he was only 40 days old.
The surgery is being carried out at the Mediterranean University Hospital in the southern province of Antalya. A team of plastic and orthopaedic surgeons are expected to finish the procedure in a day.
The surgery team headed by Omer Ozkan also performed Turkey’s first double arm transplant in September 2010 and the world’s first womb transplant in August 2011.