New program rebuilds faces of soldiers, vets

[unhappycamper]

A facial prosthetic and artificial eyes are seen in a facial prosthetics lab at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio.


New program rebuilds faces of soldiers, vets
By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jul 31, 2010 11:55:41 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — Master Sgt. Todd Nelson lost his right eye and ear in a flash when a car bomb in Afghanistan exploded, sending fire up his arm and over his head.

Although it's taken years of painstaking work, the military has given him a bright blue eye and ear lightly freckled and pinked from summer sun. They're not flesh and blood, but the glass and silicon replicas are so realistic, so perfectly customized, that they've given Nelson something else: the ability to face the world without shocking it.

"Honestly, people really don't know it's artificial," said Nelson, whose injuries three years ago included third-degree burns, a skull fracture and broken jaw. "In casual social interactions, I see much smaller cases where people stare."

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought a new kind of patient to the facial prothestics lab at the Lackland Air Force Base: wounded warriors, who have recently suffered heavy burns and multiple traumas. The lab is one of two major facial prosthetic programs in the Defense Department, and it has seen an unprecedented new stream of wounded soldiers.

Before the wars, the 26-year-old lab's patients were almost exclusively cancer and civilian trauma survivors, but "all of that prepared us for wartime, and that's really why our department is here," said lab director Dr. Joe Villalobos.

[Mimosa]

1. This war must be ended. n/t

[w8liftinglady]

2. I am grateful for this guy's actions.I have taken care of civilians with this-

it is absolutely the difference between life in the real world...and mental death.these kids are normal..they want to look normal.What seems like a small thing encourages them to get back out in public.