Damage Control

Perhaps the most psychologically, emotionally, and physically devastating injury to the human body is facial disfigurement. Not only is one shunned by such an image-conscious culture as our own, they are also alienated from their own appearance and identity, shocked by their own mirror reflection. Beauty aside, the face is the main site for human expression and interaction. A mother’s nurturing smile, a lover’s sensual gaze, an enemy’s vengeful scowl, or a comedian’s trickster wink, are all elements of facial complexity that help us to evaluate and develop our own subjectivity and social competence in the world.

Next month will mark one year since the most invasive and extensive face transplant was performed in the United States. In September 2004, Connie Culp was shot in the face by her husband outside a bar in Hopedale, Ohio. The gunshot wound left her with shattered features; the nose, cheeks, roof of the mouth, and one eye were left mutilated and therefore functionless. The transplant surgery, which was performed at the Cleveland Clinic, did little to restore Culp’s original appearance, her face now boxy and caricature-like, the skin thick and bloated. However, no signs of rejecting the skin graft have been reported and there is hope that significant progress can still be made. As nerves continue to regenerate (growing about an inch in one month), Culp’s sense of smell, taste and sight have the potential to be restored. And as circulation improves, additional surgeries may be performed to normalize her appearance and help Culp blend back into society.

With advances in surgery techniques as well as the medications that supplement such procedures, medical intervention is progressing to soon alleviate and hopefully erase all visible signs of severe trauma. Victims of abuse may soon be able to permanently erase the scars of brutal injuries. Surgical procedures along with psychiatric drugs for erasing memory may one day be used in tandem so that soldiers returning from war are able to return to a previous state of optimal functioning, both physically and emotionally. But as we transgress the boundaries of disease and trauma, as we extend life far beyond a biologically natural endpoint, what will become the future dangers to our wellbeing and health?