Falklands War vet: Face transplant must be an option

A Falklands War veteran has said that face transplants must be made available to those who need one, despite the widely-reported dangers.

Simon Weston, who served on the RFA Sir Galahad when it was bombed, suffered severe facial burns in 1982, told BBC One’s Breakfast programme that fear should not be a reason for not allowing the option of face transplants to exists.

He said: “It has to be an option taken on the balance of the person’s need and the individual themselves on the balance of their mind and everything else that goes with that.

“People are using the statistic it’s only got a 60 per cent chance of success, but how does anybody know? The only two that have been done are on the Chinese chap and Isabelle Dinoire in France and both of those face transplants have been successful up to now.”

“If we refuse to even accept that this is a potential operation that can be carried out then what we’re doing is condemning people who don’t go out in mainstream society because of their facial disfigurement,” he added.

Mr Weston acknowledged the side effects of immunosuppressant drugs but he said that this was no different from any other transplant that takes place.

He will discuss the possibility of making the operation available in the UK with surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital’s ethics committee in London. The committee has already given permission to select potential candidates, but the right to perform the operation has not been granted yet.

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