Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Woman receives New Face


I was browsing through the IO9 blog and came across an article from The Verge  magazine.   The article reports on a highly experimental medical procedure so risky that it had at that time only be tried six times before.  

Normally I do not delve into the medical unless there is a science fiction link.  But this complex procedure has no clear links, well except that this one touches on a special little horror of mine.  

Now don't get me wrong I can only guess at the complexity and amazed that it can work at all. But the first time I saw the title of the Verge's article it drew up memories that I hadn't thought of in decades.

The article you see was about a very rare procedure called a complete face transplant.  When I read this, decades old recollections  of a very scary Saturday afternoon.  I had a quarter burning a hole in my pocket and had heard from the grapevine that the local movie theater had a several films for this weeks matinee that were touted as so horrific that if you could not sit through them your money would be refunded that and you received a complementary "barf bag".  

The movie was a total gimmick.  A mad doctor needed a fresh patient so at a preset moment the screen flashes in an odd way and all of a sudden the doctor and his henchman are coming out of the screen and onto the stage, walking up through the isles they pick out this woman and take her screaming back INTO the movie!  (by this time I am under the seats)  He then proceeds to remove her entire face for some nefarious reason.   Now I am up and out of there!  They can keep my damn dime, I ate the popcorn already so we were even.  I never did remember if they really did refund, I didn't care cause I was going to put space between the mad doctor and myself.  

I know I shouldn't have read the article but did it for some titillation,  but for whatever reason I was drawn to the article, I continued to read it and watch the embedded video.   It is truly a fascinating article that should be viewed on its own merits.  

Click on The Verge  for the complete article

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