Carmen Tarleton, victim of lye attack, is hospital’s 5th face-transplant patient (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Carmen Tarleton, a 44-year-old registered nurse from Vermont, has received a full face transplant at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s hospital, the Associated Press reported.

A team led by Brigham’s director of plastic surgery transplantation, Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, performed the first full face transplant in the United States in 2011, according to the Boston Globe. Tarleton is the hospital’s fifth face transplant patient.

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Tarleton’s face was disfigured and she was nearly blinded in a June 2007 attack by her estranged husband, the AP reported. He broke into her home, beat her with a baseball bat, then splashed her with industrial-strength lye, burning more than 80 percent of her body.

The lye burned off her eyelids, making it impossible to blink, the Boston Globe reported. Her burns also made breathing and talking more difficult.

“During this month’s surgery, a team led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahac transplanted the facial skin, including the neck, nose, lips, facial muscles, arteries and nerves,’’ the hospital said in a press release, according to the Boston Globe. “The plastic surgery transplantation team, comprised of more than 30 physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists and technicians, worked for 15 hours to complete the transplant.”

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