Lorraine Kelly: The miracles of science can be a blessing to us all

THE miracles of science never fail to amaze.

This week we saw the truly remarkable story of a young man who is one of the few people in the world to have had a full face transplant.

Mitch Hunter, a former soldier, was in a horrific accident 15 years ago.

He saved the life of a young woman who would have been electrocuted, but was badly injured himself in the process.

He was left with serious injuries to his face and also had to have his leg amputated.

Mitch said that he looked just like a zombie and could have walked on to the set of The Walking Dead without any make-up.

The poor man was very badly disfigured and his life must have been very difficult. People can be truly cruel and nasty and he has had to endure endless taunts and stares.

To give him a better quality of life, Mitch was given a groundbreaking face transplant and it has obviously changed things for the better.

It does sound like the stuff of Hollywood science fiction movies.

I remember the film Face/Off where John Travolta and Nicolas Cage swapped faces. At the time it seemed ludicrously far-fetched, but fact has now caught up with fiction.

The operation obviously relied on a deceased donor and took more than 14 hours.

Mitch went through horrific pain, but says it was all worth it.

His children were very young when he had the accident and they just think of him as their dad. They have now accepted his new face and Mitch has his life back.

Before the procedure, he was unable to go anywhere without people pointing and whispering.

He has met the relatives of the man who donated his face and says they have become like a second family to him, but he doesn’t look anything like the donor, which is a blessing.

It would be horribly upsetting to see the face of your dead loved one on the body of someone else, but doctors assured Mitch and the donor’s family that due to his different bone structure that this would not be the case.

I think it’s truly incredible that surgeons now have the skills to carry out these operations.

I remember the story of the woman who basically had her face and hands ripped off by her friend’s pet chimpanzee back in 2009. It was remarkable that Charla Nash, who is now 62, survived the attack, but she was left blind and without facial features.

Charla was given a face transplant. Sadly, earlier this month, it was revealed that her body was rejecting the transplant and doctors have worked hard to halt the process and stabilise Charla.

She’s an incredibly courageous woman who has been through so much, but she is a real fighter who will pull through, but the last thing in the world she needs is to go back to covering herself with a veil and retreating from the world.

Obviously Mitch, like Charla will need to be on medication for the rest of his life, and will be closely monitored by his doctors, but the transformation is truly astonishing.

Thanks to the bravery of people like Charla and Mitch and pioneering scientists and surgeons, people with severe facial disfigurements have the chance to lead happy, fulfilling lives.

That truly is what science should be all about.

Lorraine Kelly flies to South Africa for the weekend just to see the penguins!