The world's second face transplant patient and China's first facial transplant patient would have to wait for another 2 months to know if his face transplant surgery has been a success. He is showing signs of recovery and has already crossed the post-operative critical window period.
Li Guoxing, bear attack victim underwent a partial face transplant surgery for correction of his disfigured face in a hospital in north-western China on the 14th of April. A similar surgery was conducted on a female patient, last year for surgical correction of her face that was sheared by a dog.Li was attacked by a black bear that mauled his face, one and half years back and lost most of his face and nose. His life was however safe. His inability to afford an expensive plastic surgery was realized by the Natural Conservancy (TNC), a leading US-based non-profit organization and decided to offer financial help for the surgery.
'At first, we really were not sure whether we could help him,' said Zhou Dequn, who works on the TNC project in Lijiang in Yunnan. The project is targeted at studying the living conditions of black bears in Asia and in provision of appropriate help to those attacked by wild animals.
Zhou’s efforts proved successful and Li was operated in 2005 to give him a new ray of hope and the necessary confidence.
