Man shows off first full face transplant in the US

A young father who was terribly disfigured in an electrical accident showed off his new look on Monday alongside the doctors who performed the United States first full face transplant.

26-year-old Dallas Wiens was visibly moved as he described how his young daughter called him "handsome" and how the first whiff of hospital food was so tantalizing and how there no words to thank the anonymous donor and his family.

"I can never express what has been done, what I have been given," said Wiens at a press conference with doctors who performed the operation in Brigham and Women's hospital in the north-eastern city of Boston.

The worlds first full face transplant was unveiled last year by doctors in Spain, a European feat that followed the first partial face transplant in 2005, performed on a French woman who had been mauled by a dog.

Wiens, who lives in Texas, burned his face off in November 2008 after the left side of his head touched an electrical wire while he was working up high in a cherry picker.

The high voltage electrical wire destroyed his nose and lips and also blinded him. He lost his left eye in the accident and has no light perception remaining in his right eye.

The hospital said Wiens was not likely to resemble the donor.

"The underlying facial bones and muscle of the recipient will change the shape of the facial tissue graft from the donor and will largely determine its shape and final appearance," it said in the a statement.

At the press conference, Wiens wore black sunglasses and a dark goatee beard and  appeared swollen on one side of his face.

"To me it feels natural. It feels as if it has become my own."

Plastic surgeon Bohdan Pomahac led the team of physicians, nurses and anesthesiologists who worked for more than 15 hours to replace Wiens's nose, lips, facial skin, nerves and muscles.

"He was quite literally a man without a face," said Pomahac.

The operation was done in March by a 30-strong team at Brigham and Woman's hospital, which hailed the first full face transplant performed in the United States as a sign of medical progress.

"Of the surgeons, Jeffrey Janis of Parkland Hospital said, "In plastic surgery this represents, at least in my mind, a new frontier of reconstructive surgery, of what is possible now."

"This really opens up an immense amount of doors, and represents a lot of hope where maybe before there was none."