Man shows his new smile after facial transplant

After suicide attempt left him disfigured, Cameron Underwood had the rare surgery.

YUBA CITY, Calif. — A man has had a successful facial transplant a year and a half after a suicide attempt left his face horribly disfigured, and the lead surgeon estimates his face should be “pristine” in as little as three years.

Cameron Underwood, 26, had the 25-hour operation, involving more than 100 medical staff, in January. Less than a year later, Underwood can speak intelligibly.

He is golfing and has even gone skydiving, the Sacramento Bee reported on Friday.

Underwood appeared Thursday at a news conference at New York City’s NYU Langone Health center, where he smiled and thanked medical staffers and his family for giving him a second chance at life.

“There have been so many amazing advances in surgery. I’m living proof of that. But it only happens because of special people like Will and his family,” Underwood said, referring to Will Fisher, his organ donor.

Before Underwood’s 2016 suicide attempt, he was employed as a welder and machine worker in Yuba City, said family members quoted in People magazine.

Underwood had struggled with depression since adolescence and shot himself after a day of drinking, disintegrating the bottom of his face.

With just 18 months between the initial injury and the surgery, Underwood’s procedure represented the shortest wait time for a face transplant in the U.S., said the lead surgeon, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez.

“We’re able to take advantage of the most advanced technological procedures that exist, and we can do a lot of computerized planning before we do the operation,” Rodriguez said at the news conference.

Underwood’s body has shown no signs of rejecting the transplanted face, Rodriguez said.

“There was no way we could have ever taken him back to a normal life without a face transplant,” the surgeon said.

Underwood still lives in Yuba City but must continue to travel monthly to New York City to see Rodriguez.

Fewer than 50 face transplants have been performed worldwide, and fewer than 10 total or near-total operations have been performed in the U.S.

Monica Schipper Getty Images CAMERON Underwood, 26, poses in front of photographs showing him after his 2016 suicide attempt, left, and after his facial transplant, which took 25 hours.