Woman who donated husband's face for a transplant meets the man who received it

By Deborah Arthurs
Last updated at 8:26 AM on 17th June 2009

When Susan Whitman's husband died after suffering a fatal stroke she made the difficult decision to donate not just his organs to others who needed them, but his face too.

And now, incredibly, Susan has become friends with the recipient, 59-year-old James Maki, whose own face was horribly disfigured after he fell onto a live railway line.

Whitman's husband Joseph Helfgot, 60, had always been clear that if he failed to survive long-awaited heart surgery his wish was to donate his organs.

Brave: Susan Whitman made the decision to donate her late husband's face to a 59-year-old man whose face was disfigured in an accident

But after his death, doctors asked his wife if along with the other organs, she would be happy for her husband's face to be used in a transplant.

After discussing the issue with her family, Susan agreed, and Joseph's face was donated to James Maki, a war veteran whose face had been badly burned after his accident on the railway track.

In the incident, James lost his nose, cheeks, upper lip and the roof of his mouth, as well as underlying bone, muscle and nerves.

Healing: James Maki, 59, says he was unable to live a normal life before the transplant, but now he is looking forward to eating, speaking and smiling again

For three years, James, from Boston, America, was unable to live a normal life. He struggled to eat or speak and was hardly able to leave the house.

'My life up until the transplant was a mess,' James told Closer magazine. I knew surgery might give me a normal life again. Any face was better than none.'

After making the decision to go for a transplant, James waited three months on the organ donor list before a near-perfect skin tone match was found in Joseph Helfgot.

James' nose, lip, skin, muscle and nerves were replaced with Joseph's, and just four days later, an elated James talked of the operation's success.

Gift of life: Susan Whitman with late husband Joseph Helfgot, who died of a stroke during heart surgery. 'It's what he would have wanted,' she said of the transplant

'My nose looks so close to how it was before,' he said.

And just six weeks after the 17-hour operation to attach the transplant, Susan Whitman made the journey to meet the man who now has her late husband's face.

For Susan, seeing Maki with her husband's face didn't mean looking at the image of her late husband.

'It's virtually impossible for anyone to know someone has received someone else's face, nor do they look anything like that person,' Whitman said.

Suffering: Maki before the transplant. After years of trauma the new face gave him back his life, he says

'The nose was a little bit identifiable, probably because my husband had a very nice Jewish nose. Other than that, I think he looked just like Jim and Jim feels he looks like Jim and that's really important.'

Maki himself says that it is thanks to the couple's generosity that he has been given another chance of life.

'I want to say thank you to Susan and her husband Joseph for the gift they have given me. I will be forever grateful,' he said.

Donating her husband's face, Susan says, has helped her to get over her incredible loss and allows her to feel that somehow her husband lives on.

'Joseph's life ended too soon, but it is my great joy to meet Jim,' Susan said of the experience.

'He looks fantastic - it's a miracle and a blessing.'

'In a way, because of the transplant, Joseph's still here, she said. 'Donating organs is the quickest way to get over grief.'

Giving permission for the transplant was 'hard', says Whitman, but was the right thing to do. 'You wish, on so many levels, that you don't have to make this decision, but how can you deny someone else a chance at life?'

And her husband, who Whitman says embraced life and loved to be at the centre of things, would be overjoyed at the outcome and his role in America's second face transplant.

'He would be happy to know he went out with a bang,' she said.

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