Face transplant patient discharged from hospital

Turkey’s first face transplant patient has been discharged from hospital and has returned to his village.

Uğur Acar, 19, was discharged from Akdeniz University Hospital on March 24, two months after his surgery. His doctor, Prof. Ömer Özkan, said the hospital team would be closely following the condition of Acar, and keep checking him frequently.

Acar’s transplant was conducted on Jan. 21, using the face of 39-year-old Ahmet Kaya, who died Jan. 20.
Two other face transplants were performed after Acar, one at Hacettepe University and one at Gazi University. However, the Health Ministry revoked Hacettepe University’s license to perform composite tissue transplant operations last week, on the grounds that the face and quadruple limb transplant surgeries conducted by the university’s medical staff on Feb. 24 were not in line with regulations.