It’s an miraculous about-face for the history books.
Just six weeks after receiving the first full face transplant in the United States, Dallas Wiens, a 25-year-old construction worker from Fort Worth, Texas, appeared in public for the first time yesterday to show off his new features that prompted his young daughter to say, “Daddy, you’re so handsome.”
Wiens, who suffered horrible burns to his head when the heavy construction boom lift he was operating snagged a nearby power line two and a half years ago, was reunited with his 3-year-old daughter Scarlett for the first time since the miracle surgery in March on today’s edition of “Good Morning America.”
He said she was the reason he signed on for the transplant in the first place.
“I could have lived like I was, no problem, if I did not have my daughter,” Wiens said. “But I could not bear the thought of her growing up and being asked questions, ’Why does your daddy look different?’ And dealing with that all of her childhood.”
The devastating accident and the 22 surgeries that followed left Wiens with a face devoid of features. All he had was a lipless mouth and a small goatee. He had no nose or eyes and doctors even smoothed over his blank eye sockets with skin taken from other parts of his body.