"Sure you can have my husband's face"

Wife of Boston Face Transplant Donor Says Husband Appreciated 'Value of Life'

BROOKLINE, Mass. — The wife of a Massachusetts man whose tissue was donated for the nation's second face transplant said her husband told her before heart transplant surgery that he wanted to donate his organs if he didn't survive the operation.

Susan Whitman told The Boston Globe for a story in Wednesday's editions that she was surprised, however, when organ bank officials asked if she would approve of the donation of Joseph Helfgot's face.

"It's easy to sign up and say you are an organ donor," Whitman said. "It's another to have your family understand and facilitate that. It's painful and it takes strength and a will to do it." [Source- Fox]

That is some kind of wonderful =]

I thought this was interesting because my initial, uninformed thought was that some other man would literally be walking around wearing her husband's face. . .and well, that just didn't sit too well with me. But common sense should have told me that bone structure plays a major role in facial re-construction and so while he'll have his lips, nose, facial skin, muscles, etc, he won't look anything like him.

& when you think of being an organ donor you're thinking of giving up a kidney or lung or some other vital organ, right? Think again.