Dallas Wiens, sporting a goatee and dark sunglasses, joined surgeons Monday at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in his first public appearance since the 15-hour procedure in March.
Weins, 25, of Fort Worth received a new nose, lips, skin, muscle and nerves from an anonymous donor.
A team of more than 30 doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston worked for more than 17 hours to give Wiens a new face — complete with skin and the muscles and nerves needed to animate it.
Wiens was able to show his three-year-old girl, Scarlette, his new face last week and on Monday.
Less than a month after Wiens’ surgery – which was paid for by the U.S. military in an effort to use the knowledge from this experience to help soldiers with severe facial wounds – doctors at Brigham and Women’s performed the face transplant.
“I adapted to it very quickly,” Wiens told reporters. “As time went on … I was able to smell again and breathe through my nose. Every step of the way was amazing.”
The first thing Wiens’ nose was able to detect after months of having no smell? Hospital lasagna.
“You wouldn’t imagine it, but it smelled delicious,” Wiens said.
Since the transplant, Wiens said, the most rewarding moment came when he was reunited with his preschool daughter.
“She was amazed. She actually said, ‘Daddy, you’re so handsome,’” Wiens said at a news conference at Brigham and Women’s, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, where a team of more than 30 medical experts replaced his nose, lips, skin, muscles of facial animation and nerves in March.

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