Dallas Wiens: With new face, transplant recipient gets new life

Dallas Wiens has a goatee.

Just weeks ago, the 26-year-old from Texas didn’t have a nose or nearly any other facial feature since he was burned in a horrific accident.

But after weeks of recovery, Wiens is set to leave Brigham and Women’s Hospital with a new face and a new life.

“To me, this feels natural. It has become my own,” said Wiens who spoke today for the first time since he became the first person in the country to receive a full face transplant.

Wiens suffered burns when his head came in to contact with high voltage wires while he was working on a lift.

He lost his eye sight and since of smell after the accident. But since the transplant, his sense of smell – as well as the ability to breathe through his nose – has returned. He said the first thing he could smell after the surgery was spaghetti and pasta.

However, when a nurse brought a plant in to his room, that’s when it really hit him.

“To know that I could smell a rose … it really hit home for me,” he said.

Wiens has seen his daughter, Scarlette, since the surgery and when asked what her reaction was he said she called him “handsome.”

Wiens will soon leave the hospital and will return home where the first thing he will do is hold his daughter, he said.