Man gets his ‘third face’ in transplant operation

French surgeon says he has performed a second face transplant on the patient

French specialist Dr Laurent Lantieri with his patient Jérome Hamon in Paris. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
French specialist Dr Laurent Lantieri with his patient Jérome Hamon in Paris. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

A French surgeon says one of his patients has received a second face transplant.

The patient, Jérome Hamon, who has become known as “the man with three faces”, is now reported to be doing well, and even spent a recent weekend in Brittany.

Dr Laurent Lantieri of the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris first transplanted a new face onto Mr Hamon in 2010.

But after becoming ill in 2015, Mr Hamon was given drugs that interfered with anti-rejection medicines he was taking for his face transplant.

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Last November, complications led Dr Lantieri to remove the transplanted face.

That left Mr Hamon without a face, in a condition Dr Lantieri described as “the walking dead”.

In January, a second transplant was conducted. Dr Lantieri said Mr Hamon was now recovering well.

Doctors say that, as with other organ transplants, it is not unexpected that some face transplants need to be replaced. – AP