Plastic Surgery and Reconstruction

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By now, you’ve read how plastic surgeons often spend five to seven years in training learning general and plastic surgery. And that’s after getting an M.D. degree.

One of the valuable skills those surgeons also learn is reconstructive surgery which is usually defined as restoring the form and function of the body. While plastic surgery, on the other hand, is charged with making the unhappy normal happy once more.

Plastic surgeons who perform reconstructive surgery repair:

• Birth defects like cleft lip or palate
• Breast reconstruction after mastectomy
• Feet and hand problems, including tumor removal
• Wounds
• Facial deformities

On November 22, viewers of the Discovery Channel can watch University of Washington plastic surgery professor Peter Neligan, M.D. remove an 11-pound tumor from the face of James O’Neal, a grocery store checker who often said his life is something like John Merrick’s in the movie, The  Elephant Man.

Despite O’Neal’s condition, the outgoing and friendly patient is extremely well-liked by his grocery store  customers. So they started a fund to pay for reconstructive surgery to remove the many huge tumors that twisted, bent and hid O’Neal’s facial features. The tumors also inhibited his breathing and got in the way of clear speech.

O’Neal’s grocery store employer and many generous Seattle citizens donated over $200,000.  So the disfigured grocery checker went under the knife of Professor Neligan who donated his surgical skills in a seven-hour operation that required tissue and muscle donations from O’Neal’s body to complete his very specialized face lift.

O’Neal had reconstructive plastic surgery about a year ago but the surgical session had to be halted due to uncontrolled bleeding. The thick, spongy tumor tissue is prone to excessive bleeding, but the surgeons found a way to control it.

O’Neal now says for the first time in decades, he can see both sides of his face and breathe through both nostrils. However, the tumors continue growing so he will have to go back under the knife every three to five years to keep up with the growths. The condition that causes the tumors is known as Neurobromatosis.

In a way, O’Neal is like many other satisfied plastic surgery patients: he feels happier, more confident and actually likes looking in – and not avoiding — mirrors!

admin @ November 19, 2009