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In May 2023, surgeons in New York performed the world's first eye transplant. The patient was 46 years old Aaron James, a veteran from Arkansas who suffered a serious facial injury in a work-related accident. “MIR 24” reports this.
In 2021, James was working as a high-voltage power line lineman when his face came into contact with a live wire. He survived but lost his left eye, most of his face and part of his left arm.
The eye and part of the face transplant operation took 21 hours and was carried out by a team of more than 140 doctors. Surgeons connected the organ to the brain by injecting stem cells obtained from a donor's bone marrow into the optic nerve of the donor eye. These cells can repair damaged ones, including those in the eyes.
Such operations have never been performed before, so it is difficult to predict how the patient’s body will behave. This is a potential risk for the patient, including death.
A few months after surgery, James' eye began to recover. Blood began flowing again to the retina, which is responsible for sensing light and transmitting signals to the brain to form images.