Widow meets transplant man given husband’s face

TWO people linked by an extraordinary facial transplant procedure have had an emotional meeting in America.

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Lilly Ross was introduced to Andy Sandness, the 32-year-old man who now has her late husband’s face.

Mrs Ross, whose husband Calen ‘Rudy’ Ross died in 2016, reached out and touched Mr Sandness’ face, prodding the rosy cheeks and eyeing the hairless patch on his chin she once had known so well.

“That’s why he always grew (his beard) so long — so he could try to mesh it together on the chin,” she told Mr Sandness.

Sixteen months after transplant surgery gave Mr Sandness the face that had belonged to Mr Ross, he met the woman who had agreed to donate her high school sweetheart’s visage to a man who lived nearly a decade without one.

The two came together last month in a meeting arranged by the Mayo Clinic, the same place where Mr Sandness underwent a 56-hour operation, marking the first time the facility had performed such a procedure.

With her toddler Leonard in tow, Mrs Ross strode toward Mr Sandness, tears welling in her eyes as they tightly embraced.

Before the meeting, Mrs Ross had been fearful of reminders of her husband, who took his own life.

But without Calen’s eyes, forehead or strong cheekbones, Mr Sandness did not look like him, she said.