Word: patient
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Getty is the most famous patient among 150 who have acquired new ears through the specialized skills of Plastic Surgeon Burt Brent, 39. His case is also among the most difficult that have confronted Brent, because of the savagery with which the ear was hacked off and the infection that followed, leaving Brent very little natural tissue to work with. So far Getty's ear form has been substantially recreated, but further surgery to refine both its form and appearance remains necessary...
...restoration was attempted as early as 1597 by the Bolognese surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi, who grafted attached flaps of the patient's own skin and thus evaded the body's rejection mechanism more than three centuries before this phenomenon was scientifically understood. Such procedures were declared impious and were forbidden. More recent restoration efforts, using metal ear molds or dead cartilage, have produced poor results in many cases, although silicones have been employed successfully...
...learned sculpture before studying medicine, built upon and refined techniques developed by Dr. Radford Tanzer, 72, now a professor emeritus at Dartmouth Medical College. The basic principle is to use one or two pieces of cartilage, 4 to 5 in. (10 to 13 cm.) long, taken from the patient's own ribs. This causes no disability. While an assistant closes the chest wound, Brent carves and molds the cartilage into an approximation of the ultimate desired shape for the new ear. Then he makes a pocket from the skin where the ear should be and slips the cartilage into...
After initial healing, there may be several sessions of relatively minor surgery to sculpt the ear closer to Brent's artistic standards. "The ear will never look absolutely real," he concedes, "but we can achieve an appearance so pleasing that the patient's psychological attitude is improved, often quite dramatically...
...City in the 1950s, when most men wore short hair, he sometimes felt uncomfortable when he was being stared at. When fashions changed, he grew his hair long and carefully combed it over the area where the ear was missing. After moving to San Francisco, he became a Brent patient and is already delighted with the result of his surgery, although touch-up work remains to be done. Kaplan has cut his hair short again, and when friends comment on his new ear, he corrects them: "You're looking at a piece...