30-Year-Old Frenchman Is the First Person to Receive a Full Face Transplant

The condition began to take its toll on Coler when he was a little boy. As it progressed, he says, people would faint when they saw him. After 24 years of suffering, Coler was given a new face.

"At first we were quite frightened to do the transplant," said Lantieri. "We didn't know how the patient would tolerate the fact to have a new face."

Doctors cut his skin away and replaced it with the face of an unnamed donor, painstakingly connecting arteries, veins and nerves.

When his mother and sister saw his new face, Coler said, "both burst into tears of absolute happiness. It was one of the happiest days of their lives."

But Coler does not look like the anonymous donor.

"It is not like the movie 'Face Off,'" said Lantieri.

World's First Full Face Transplant Hailed