MODERN SURGERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 281, 30 November 1935, Page 10

MODERN SURGERY

YOUTH’S FACE RENEWED VICTIM OF ACID BURNS ACCIDENT WHILE WORKING. AMAZING RESULTS ACHIEVED. SIDNEY, Nov. 16. . After having half his face burned away with nitric acid, lan Williams, aged I'J, has watched the rebuilding and regrowth of his features until he is now as near to nature’s design as science can make him. in six months has face probably will be a true replica of the original, although he will have oniy one side of it to shave. The part on which the down of youth will never show is now composed of flesh transferred by plastic surgery from his body, so that one normal cheek has a healthy florid colour, while the other is white and fair. Sunbaking and massage will change all that. The lad comes from Queensland. Until he was 18 years of age he had never been sick.. At the Government Printing Office in Brisbane where he was employed, he was carrying a bottle of nitric acid when it slipped from his bands and was broken. Williams was splashed from head to foot by the acid. The smooth skin of his face had become raw before his workmates could apply the corrective remedy kept ready for such an emergency. Agony of Burning. The agvny of the burning must have been maddening. The acid Mowed down hi a leg and flooded round his shoe top, eating away the flesh of the ankle. But Williams kept his head. I Ke closed his eyes tightly as he stag- ! gervd about, and this saved his sight, tie also pressed his lingers against ' aii nose to prevent internal burning. 1 A drop of acid was on a linger tip. and this ate a hole in his upper lip. l he gap has been tilled in by an artistic iaiav of grafted flesh. Less than an inch in circumference, it was held with 60 stitches. For live mouths Williams was in a Brisbane hospital with one cheek, the chin and lhe throat denuded of most of lhe flesh. An eyvlid, apart from the innermost lining, was eaten away, the under iip was gone, and his body was frightfully scarred. Ln January last he was taken to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where the biggest and most successful plastic surgery work was performed. Process of Grafting. Strips of flesh two inches wide and ten inches long were slowly moved up from the area of the chest and ribs to his face by tube grafting. The plastic surgeon worked with a photograph of Williams before him, put on a new eyelid and restored the contour of the face to the likeness of the picture. Williams has now left hospital and gone back to Brisbane. The case has aroused considerable interest a'l over the world. Each month lhe work was photographed and copies were sent to medical authon ties in the principal cities of the Empire. It has been discussed in voluminous correspondence, and advice has. been offered by tire leading plastic surgeons in England, including the cx-New Zealander, Sir Harold Gillies. W‘ Hams is said to be the only known victim of extensive nitric acid burns ♦.misurvive, and therefore has been the %\y patient offering opportunity for ’such considerable facial restoration.