The face lies on a surgical tray, eyes empty and unseeing, mouth agape, as if exclaiming, “Oh!”
Sixteen hours ago surgeons in Operating Room 19 at the Cleveland Clinic began the delicate work of removing the face from a 31-year-old woman who was declared legally and medically dead three days earlier. Soon they will take it to a 21-year-old woman who has waited more than three years for a new face.
For a moment, the face rests in its astonished solitude.
