Cleveland Clinic Performs First US Face Transplant

Doctors in Cleveland have successfully completed the nation’s first near-total facial transplant on a on a patient disfigured by traumatic injury, the Plain Dealer reports today. The hospital, which said the patient didn’t want to be identified, was the first in the US to approve the controversial procedure, which some consider too risky for a non-life threatening condition. Maria Siemionow, who led the operating team, argued that patients should be allowed to take their chances. (More medical breakthrough stories.)