Turkish doctors successfully complete country’s fourth face transplant

In the fourth such operation in Turkey, 19-year-old Tevfik Yılmaz’s face was transplanted onto Turan Çolak. The operation was overseen by Dr. Ömer Özkan, a professor from the plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery department of Akdeniz University’s School of Medicine. The removal of Yılmaz’s face took six hours at a hospital in Uşak province. The face was immediately taken to Antalya to be transplanted onto Çolak, whose face was disfigured due to burns he suffered in a fire when he was 3-and-a-half years old.

The hospital is known for having carried out Turkey’s first full-face transplant in January. Uğur Acar, who suffered serious burns to his face during a house fire that occurred when he was just 40 days old, underwent a successful face-transplant operation at the hospital. The transplant was made possible after the family of Ahmet Kaya, who had been declared brain dead, donated all of his organs.