Turkish surgeons successfully performed two major operations. First operation was Turkey’s first-ever face transplant, the second was a triple limb transplants first-ever in the world.

Ankara / NationalTurk – A team of Turkish doctors at Akdeniz University in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, southern Turkey city of Antalya performed the face transplant operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby.

Tissue from the face of a 39-year-old donor, Ahmet Kaya, who died Jan. 20, was successfully transplanted, the reports stated. The operation performed by Turkish surgeons brings the number of face transplants carried out worldwide to 20. The first ever face transplant operation was a partial face transplant on Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire in 2005.

Turkish doctors pride Turkey, set signature in World medicine

Turkish doctors from the same hospital had a busy and remarkable schedule this weekend making history in medicine. Another team of Turkish surgeons were performing another significant operation Saturday from the same donor, on a 34-year old man in what was reported as the world’s first double arm and single leg transplant.

Doctors were transplanting 3 limbs to a man who lost both arms and one leg when he was electrocuted at the age of 11, stated Anatolia news agency. “Today could be a day of many firsts for the medical world,” told Dr. Zafer Aydin a member of surgical team performed the operations the news agencies.

First ever triple limb and face transplants performed by Turkish doctors in Antalya, Turkey

“We are hoping that the operation is a success and that it is a world first,” said Aydin, who heads the organ transplant unit at the hospital in western Turkey where the donor’s limbs were removed. “Two arms and a leg have never been transplanted on one patient until today.””Dr. Ömer Özkan, who headed a 25-member team conducting the transplants, said both patients were being cared for in the intensive care unit and were “doing well.” “Today, we have put our signature on a world success,” Dr Israfil Kurtcephe, the university hospital’s rector, told reporters after the two operations. “For the first time a hospital has transplanted two arms and a leg on one patient.”

Dr Omer Ozkan, who headed a 25-member team, said both patients were being cared for in the intensive care unit and were “doing well”. The full-face transplant lasted some nine hours, while the limb transplants took 12 hours after the limbs and face became available early on Saturday and the hospital began the operation at 03:15.

“We have a critical 10-15-day period ahead of us for both operations, but if we pull through this period we will be making history,” Ozkan said.

The world’s first double arm transplant was in Germany in 2008, while the first double leg transplant took place in Spain in July 2011.

More than a dozen face transplants have been carried out around the world, starting in November 2005 with a French woman who was mauled by her dog. The first face transplant in the US was in December 2008.

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