A man whose face had been horribly disfigured in an accident this summer underwent the first of what is expected to be a year-long series of surgical procedures in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Chen Yong, 36, from the suburbs of Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China, was seriously injured on July 19 while attempting to repair a cement mixer that was mistakenly turned on.

"Three-fifths of the patient's face were totally destroyed, while the remaining two-fifths were severely deformed. Only his left eye and tongue remained intact. He was no longer able to chew, swallow, speak or breathe freely," said Lei Delin, one of the surgeons taking part in the operation and the director of the Maxillofacial Surgery Office at the Oral Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, one of China's leading oral surgery centers.

Hospital director Zhao Yimin said the operation would proceed in four steps, which would take about a year to complete.

He Lisheng, one of the lead surgeons taking part in the operation yesterday, said the surgical team had repaired a fracture on the left side of Chen's face and other broken bones. The team also corrected the abnormal width of Chen's face.

"In the following operation, we will repair some defects in the soft tissue on the right side of his face, as well as damage to his jaw, eye, nose and maxillary sinuses. This will help him recover his functions of chewing, swallowing, speaking and breathing," He added.

The doctor said the surgical team started the procedure at 9:13 AM and took about 8 hours to complete it. "It took two more hours than we had planned. This was the most complicated operation we had ever encountered," said He.

During the past four months, the patient breathed through an oxygen tube inserted in his throat and was also fed through a tube, Lei said.

"My husband was working as an electrician at the construction site. On July 19, he was repairing a cement mixer when a worker mistakenly switched the machine on, seriously injuring my husband's face," said Li Xiuqing, Chen's wife.

"I took my husband to several hospitals in Chongqing and was told that there was no hope to save him because the extensive damage to his face would make it difficult for him to recover his ability to chew, swallow and breath properly," Li said.

Chongqing's doctors told Li that it would simply be too difficult to repair her husband's badly damaged face.

"It is really very hard to perform an operation to fix multiple facial defects at one time. The effort to repair Chen's incomplete face is the most complex and challenging procedure in the world," said Liu Baolin, a maxillofacial surgery expert who took part in designing the operation plan.

Before yesterday's operation, the hospital had carried out two successful operations in April and September, respectively, for a man whose face had been mauled by a bear and a girl who had suffered from congenital defects in her cheekbones and maxillary sinuses.

(China Daily November 16, 2006)