Robert Chelsea became the first black person to receive a full face transplant in the U.S. after he underwent the procedure at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in July.
Mr. Chelsea, 68, is also the oldest patient to undergo the procedure. In 2013, he suffered significant burns on 60 percent of his body and face after a drunk driver crashed into his car.
Mr. Chelsea had been on the face transplant waiting list at Boston-based Brigham and Women's since 2018. Physicians waited until they found a donor with a similar skin tone to perform the transplant.
More than 45 physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists and other clinicians participated in the surgery, which took about 16 hours. Mr. Chelsea is "progressing and recovering remarkably fast," Bohdan Pomahac, MD, head of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women's, said in a news release.
The procedure marked the ninth face transplant performed at Brigham and Women's and the 15th completed nationwide.