A hospital in Barcelona said \u200con \u200bMonday it had performed a \u200cpioneering facial transplant in which the donor, in a world \u200bfirst, had offered her face for donation before undergoing an assisted dying procedure.<\/p>\n
The complex surgery \u200dinvolved transplanting composite tissue from the \u200bcentral part of the face and required the participation of around 100 professionals, \u200bincluding psychiatrists \u2060and immunologists, the prestigious Vall d’Hebron hospital said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The hospital’s transplant coordinator, Elisabeth Navas, said the donor had showed “a level of maturity that leaves one speechless”.<\/p>\n
“Someone who has decided to end their life dedicates one of their last wishes to a \u200cstranger and gives them a second chance of this magnitude,” Navas said.<\/p>\n
GLOBAL LEADER \u200bIN ORGAN \u200cTRANSPLANTS<\/p>\n
The recipient – identified only \u200dby her \u2060first name Carme – had suffered facial tissue necrosis from a bacterial infection caused by an insect bite, affecting her ability to speak, eat and see.<\/p>\n
“When I’m looking in the mirror at home, I’m thinking that I’m starting to look more like myself,” Carme told a press conference on Monday, adding her recovery was going very well.<\/p>\n
For such cases requiring facial transplants, donor \u200band recipient must share the same sex, blood group and have a similar head size.<\/p>\n
With a population of 49.4 million, Spain has been a global leader in organ transplants for more than three decades. In 2021, it became the fourth European Union country to legalise euthanasia.<\/p>\n
Half of the six facial transplants ever done in Spain have been performed by Vall d’Hebron staff. The Catalan hospital also carried out the world’s first full face transplant back in 2010.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the hospital declined to say the exact date of the \u200bprocedure for privacy reasons, but told Reuters it took place during the autumn of 2025.<\/p>\n
Some 6,300 organ transplants were performed last year in Spain, according to Health Ministry data, with kidney transplants being the most common.<\/p>\n
In 2024, 426 \u200bpeople received assistance in dying, government data shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A hospital in Barcelona said \u200con \u200bMonday it had performed a \u200cpioneering facial transplant in which the donor, in a world \u200bfirst, had offered her face for donation before undergoing an assisted dying procedure. The complex surgery \u200dinvolved transplanting composite tissue from the \u200bcentral part of the face and required the participation of around 100 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[790],"class_list":{"0":"post-2516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sitefansalaran-international-news","8":"tag-spain-performs-pioneering-face-transplant-from-donor-who-requested-assisted-dying"},"yoast_head":"\n