Doctors complete first quadruple-limb surgery

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s second face transplant patient Cengiz Gür’s aunt Münevver Oral spoke to press members outside of the hospital, saying that her nephew was watching the news of the first face transplant operation very carefully. Gür, 25, was given the face of 40-year-old N.K. , who lost his life due to a traffic accident ten days ago. DHA photo

Doctors completed Turkey’s first quadruple-limb and second face transplant surgeries at Ankara’s Hacettepe University on Feb. 24, just weeks after surgeons at Akdeniz University in the Mediterranean province of Antalya performed the country’s first face and triple-limb transplant operations.

A team of medical experts arrived at Dokuz Eylül University in the Aegean province of İzmir on Feb. 24 to retrieve the arms, legs and face of donor N.K., and quickly returned to Ankara.

“My son has never done anything to upset me until now. I have always been proud of my son. He lost his life at a young age, and he leaves his children behind,” said N.K.’s mother, according to Anatolia news agency.

N.K., 40, had been severely injured in a traffic accident 10 days earlier in İzmir’s Çeşme district, and his family agreed to donate his organs after doctors pronounced him brain dead.

Medical experts then surgically removed all his limbs and face at around 11:00 a.m. on Feb. 24, according to Doğan news agency.

Doctors transplanted N.K.’s face to 25-year-old Cengiz Gür, 70 percent of whose face had been damaged at the age of 5 when a television exploded. N.K.’s arms and legs went to 27-year-old Şevket Çavdar, who reportedly lost all of his limbs after receiving an electric shock in 1998.

An incident that cast a shadow on the operation
Meanwhile, hospital staff members carrying the donor’s limbs in İzmir dropped a bag containing N.K.’s legs when the bottom side of the carton the bag was in burst open. The attendants returned the bag to the box and carried it to the hospital.

A team of doctors led by surgeon Ömer Özkan successfully performed Turkey’s first face transplant operation on Uğur Acar, 19, who received the face of donor Ahmet Kaya, 39, on Jan. 21 at Antalya’s Akdeniz University Hospital. The patient saw his new face in the mirror for the first time Feb. 13.
Another patient, Atilla Kavdır, also received two donor arms and a leg in a surgical operation on the same day as Acar, although his body rejected the leg a day later. Kavdır experienced multiple organ failure and life-threatening blood clots in the first 72 hours after the surgery, but was reported to be in “good and stable” condition when he was discharged from intensive care Feb. 16.