Face Transplants for Injured Soldiers Planned

Soldiers who have been severely disfigured in Iraq and Afghanistan may benefit from a $3.4 million contract granted by the Pentagon to Brigham and Women’s Hospital to perform face transplants. To qualify, soldiers must be missing at least one-quarter of their face and be unable to get significant help from conventional plastic surgery techniques.

A 35-member medical team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital performed the second face transplant in the United States in April 2009. The recipient was James Maki, who had been severely disfigured in a subway accident. The first face transplant performed in the United States occurred in December 2008 at Cleveland Clinic. The patient was Connie Culp, who underwent the 22-hour surgery over two days. Ms. Culp’s husband shot her in the face in 2004 during a murder-suicide attempt, shattering her nose, cheek, and jaw.

The contract awarded to Brigham is the first time money has been given out under a Department of Defense initiative to rapidly introduce innovative medical techniques into mainstream practice. A smaller award was given to the University of Pittsburgh for facial reconstruction surgery.

The need for face transplants and facial reconstruction have become more necessary since the starts of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars. Compared with previous conflicts in which there were three wounded soldiers for every death, today there are nine wounded for every fatality, Dr. Joseph Rosen, a plastic surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire told the Boston Globe. Along with the increasing numbers of wounded veterans are more severe injuries, many of them caused by improvised explosive devices.

Doctors at Brigham are developing the face transplant program, including recruitment information for veterans. The plan is to make the information available on websites for veterans and to also contact soldiers through a government registry of the wounded. Face transplant surgery costs approximately $250,000 to $300,000 and is not covered by insurance.

In addition to performing the face transplants, the Department of Defense is also interested in learning more about the use of immunosuppressant drugs, which transplant patients need to take to prevent rejection of the donor tissue. Transplant recipients need to take these drugs and manage their side effects for the rest of their lives.

Over the next 18 months, the Department of Defense hopes Brigham physicians will complete face transplants on six to eight soldiers. This represents a small percentage of the estimated 200 veterans that may qualify for the procedure.

Dr. Rosen told the Boston Globe that “It’s not enough just to keep soldiers alive.” Face transplants for those who have been severely disfigured “would be a big step toward them leading more useful and productive lives.”

Source:emaxhealth.com/

Soldiers' bodies brought home

The body of a soldier from Kent who was killed in Afghanistan has been returned to the UK.

Rifleman James Brown, 18, from Orpington, died when two suicide bombers on a motorbike blew themselves up outside Sangin in Helmand Province on December 15.

Lance Corporal David Kirkness, 24, from West Yorkshire, also died. Both were from 3rd Battalion The Rifles.

They were hailed as heroes for preventing mass carnage in a bazaar packed with Afghan civilians.

Also flown home was the body of Corporal Simon Hornby, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, who was killed by an improvised explosive device while on foot patrol in the Nad-e-Ali area of Helmand on Saturday.

The soldiers' bodies were flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire before a private ceremony for their families.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iY4AHV4k9GXRGzqf1I7ppJ7tjNDw

New British 'friendly fire' death in Afghanistan probed

A second British soldier has died after being wounded in a suspected "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The soldier, from 3rd Battalion The Rifles, has not been named but his family has been told.

He died on Tuesday, having been wounded in a fire fight near Sangin, central Helmand Province, on Monday.

A soldier killed in a separate suspected friendly fire incident has been named as L/Cpl Michael Pritchard.

L/Cpl Pritchard, 22, a Kent-born Royal Military Policeman who lived in Eastbourne, Sussex, died as a result of "small arms fire" - also near Sangin - on Sunday.

Both deaths are under investigation and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says no firm conclusions will be drawn until after the men's inquests.

Some 105 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, bringing the total killed since operations began in 2001 to 242.

The MoD said "initial reports" suggested the latest death "may have resulted from a friendly fire incident".

Task Force Helmand spokesman, Lt Col David Wakefield, said the soldier's "courage and his sacrifice will not be forgotten".

The BBC's Adam Mynott said that to have two friendly fire deaths on consecutive nights was unusual.

However, he said Sangin was one of the "hottest" areas of conflict between British forces and the Taliban.

"In these shooting incidents where there's a lot of gunfire, it's very hard to tell what's happening," he added.

L/Cpl Pritchard was born in Maidstone, Kent, and joined the Royal Military Police (RMP) in 2007. He had been in Afghanistan since October.

His family said: "With great sadness we say goodbye to our beloved son, a lover of life who has lived life to the full and has brought great joy to all those who are lucky enough to know him.

"A light that shines brightly, our precious son, brother, grandson, boyfriend and special friend to all, we are very proud of you in all that you have done and achieved and you will always be in our hearts now and ever more."

'Unbearable grief'

The soldier's commanding officer, Lt Col Debbie Poneskis, described him as "everything you would want in a military policeman".

"He was a professional and robust soldier and one who was both physically and morally courageous," she said, adding that he was "a cheeky chap, whose laughter was infectious".

"L/Cpl Pritchard's death has hit us as a regiment very hard, at a time when we thought we had already suffered unbearable pain and grief."

Several Royal Military Policemen have been killed in recent months.

They include Acting Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith, who were shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman in November, and Sgt Robert Loughram-Dickson, who died in a gun battle in the same month.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said he was "deeply saddened" at L/Cpl Pritchard's death.

"He was hard-working and dependable and was showing great promise as a junior non-commissioned officer," he added.

Source:bbc.co.uk

Soldiers' bodies return to the UK

Three British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan are to be returned to the UK.

Lance Corporal David Kirkness, 24, and Rifleman James Brown, 18, both of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died when two suicide bombers on a motorbike blew themselves up outside Sangin in Helmand Province on December 15.

They were hailed as heroes for preventing mass carnage in a bazaar packed with Afghan civilians.

Corporal Simon Hornby, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was killed by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in the Nad-e-Ali area of Helmand on Saturday.

The soldiers' bodies will be flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

After a private ceremony for their families, a hearse carrying their Union Jack-draped coffins will pass along the high street of nearby Wootton Bassett. The market town has become the focus for the nation's mourning of the deaths of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Crowds have appeared along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel began being brought home through RAF Lyneham in April 2007.

L/Cpl Kirkness, from Morley, near Leeds, and Rfn Brown, from Orpington, Kent, died manning a vehicle checkpoint on the road into Sangin. Two suicide bombers on a motorbike drove into the checkpoint and detonated their devices, killing the British servicemen and two Afghan soldiers working with them.

The Ministry of Defence said it was thought the bombers were trying to get into Sangin's bazaar to launch an attack.

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Kitson, commanding officer of 3 Rifles Battle Group, said the British soldiers' comrades took comfort and pride from the fact that the soldiers averted a "much larger tragedy".

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jebhBldk0adZwVy-ewcFLv9JILXw