GIRL’S FACE REMADE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20142, 11 January 1940, Page 8

GIRL’S FACE REMADE

PLASTIC SURGEON’S ART FIRE-SEARED FEATURES NEW YORK, Dec. 30. “The girl in the hallowe’en mask” is gone. In her place stands a girl, young, pretty and gay, and the grimacing tortured face; the staring, lidless eyes are gone forever. More than 1(1 years ago she “lost" her face when she fell into the leaping flames of an open hearth. She approached her 18th birthday, her face constantly grimacing from tightly-drawn scar tissue, her eyes 1 staring constantly, because she could , not close them Transformation Dr. James Barrett Brown, Associate 1 Professor of Clinical Surgery at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., ■ told the story of her transformation— ' without disclosing her name—to mein- . bers of the society of plastic and } econstruhive -urgery. I ■ He cut a diagonal line across the! middle of her forehead, temple to temple. He drew upward the upper part of her forehead. He drew : downward the lower part, on which there were no eyebrows. i “This left most of the forehead . a brord, raw strip,” he explained, ••T performed a free skin graft.” >■ j>r. Brown then cut a line from |

the side of one nostril upward along the nos?, over the bridge, and down the other side. He drew the skin down, exposing the raw surface of the nose, upon which he stitched a patch. Below each other eyelid, he stitched a crescent of new skin. Then he began to make eyebrows. On each side of her forehead he cut slits until he came to arteries which feed and keep alive the eyebrows. From her head, he cut tufts of hair, sewing them on as eyebrows. Then he drew over the arteries, to nourish the transplanted hair. When he came to the cheeks — rcugh, corrugated and stiff—he took ‘hem off. From her legs lie took more skin, made new cheeks, stitched them on, and trimmed the edges. He clipped the eyebrows, and smoothed out the last irregularities Then he told the girl to clo as other girls do—use a little make-up —and be happy.