Li Guoxing, the recipient of China's first successful face transplant,
yesterday walked out of the Shaanxi Province hospital that performed the surgery
for his first trip home since the operation.
The 30-year-old was released for seven days for a homecoming with his wife
and two children in Yunnan Province.
Li, whose face was severely disfigured in a 2004 bear attack, received a
partial face transplant at Shaanxi's Xijing Hospital, the second operation of
its kind in the world.
Surgeons in France carried out the world's first such operation last year on
38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire, whose lips and nose were chewed off by a dog.
During a 14-hour procedure on April 14, Li was given a new cheek, upper lip,
nose and an eyebrow, all from a single donor.
The transplanted part of his face is alive, and Li has been recovering well,
said Guo Shuzhong, director of the hospital's plastic surgery department and the
director of the operation.
Before leaving the hospital in Xi'an, Li participated in a news briefing held
to mark his departure.
The swelling on the transplanted part of his face has now almost disappeared,
making his face seem more natural.
Looking cheerful, Li spoke to reporters in simple Chinese. Prior to coming in
for surgery, he could speak only the dialect of the Lisu ethnic minority.
He expressed thanks to the doctors and nurses at the hospital in standard
Chinese and said he was "very happy to go home."
His upper lip now has a small mustache, and some acne has appeared on his
face in the past few days.
Guo said these developments showed Li was recovering well.
Two doctors accompanied Li to his home, a mountainous village in Yunnan. They
first flew to Kunming, the provincial capital, and continued from there by bus.
Given the poor living and medical conditions in his hometown, Li will return
to the hospital after his weeklong visit, according to Guo.
Further plastic surgery will be carried out in two to three weeks to make the
right part of his face, his lips and eyes seem more natural.
Because Li is very poor, the hospital is paying all his treatment fees, Guo
said. The amount was not revealed.
