Emmy Award-winning Feagler & Friends is a lively, weekly half-hour television discussion of local and national issues impacting lives in Northeast Ohio. Hosted by award-winning journalist and former Plain Dealer columnist, Dick Feagler, Feagler & Friends explores the various issues behind today's news. With a changing ensemble of "friends" ranging from journalists to community and political leaders, Feagler & Friends takes on issues from many different perspectives. Always entertaining and never boring, Feagler & Friends is the program for people "in the know" in Northeast Ohio.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Topics: Health, Other
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Face Transplant Pioneer Maria Siemionow, MD, PhD, Cleveland Clinic

A team of Cleveland Clinic plastic surgeons made history in December, 2008 when they performed the world’s first near-total face transplant. The patient was an Ohio woman, Connie Culp, 44, who’d been shot in the face by her estranged husband five years earlier. A few months later, Culp was recovered enough to show off her new face at a news conference, but she still must endure follow-up surgery and a lifetime of anti-rejection drug therapy. Dr. Siemionow led the surgical team that performed the December operation. She speaks with Mr. Feagler about the challenges of preparing for a near-total face transplant and the challenges remaining for a patient who yearns only to look normal again. They also discuss the life journey that brought Siemionow from her native Poland to Cleveland where she’s now achieved worldwide acclaim. She’s written a book about her professional experiences entitled Face to Face.

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