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CNN Live At Daybreak

Man Gets New Face After Rare Infection Destroys His Face

Aired February 04, 2002 - 05:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well listen to this story, it is amazing. Plastic surgeons often give people new eyes or a new nose, but doctors in Kentucky are giving a man a new face.

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the amazing story. A warning for you though, some of the pictures are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mark Tatum is here to get a new face.

MARK TATUM, PATIENT: Hi, Nancy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), how are you?

TATUM: I was fine until (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

COHEN: Here's his new face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you all are ready to see from ugly to pretty.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COHEN: Here's the face he has now. The prosthesis is not exactly like his real face, but never mind that, Mark says, considering that, statistically speaking, he shouldn't even be alive.

Few people survive such a raging case of mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection. His doctors aren't quite sure how he got it. The infection started in his sinus and spread very quickly. To keep the fungus from travelling to his brain and killing him, doctors had to remove Mark's infected eyes, nose, cheekbones, upper jaw and teeth.

(on camera): Did you think he was going to survive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Initially we did not think he was going to survive. The prognosis was extremely grim.

COHEN (voice-over): Now, 2 years and 11 surgeries later, this is the moment Mark's been waiting for. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there, there's your eyes, your eyebrows, then you come down, there's your nose and your cheeks.

COHEN: Here's how doctors at the University of Louisville reconstructed Mark's face. First, using skin and tissue from his leg, they built the roof of his mouth so Mark could speak and eat. Then they took a bone from his leg and put it into his face. On top of that bone they built titanium bridgework. Magnets on that bridgework hold the prosthetic face in place. Now it's ready for the kissing test.

TATUM: Let's try it again.

NANCY TATUM, Wife: Uh-oh, one nose print from -- on your glasses. We're going to have to work on that, aren't we.

COHEN: It's not perfect. He wears sunglasses to hide the fact that his fake eyes don't blink. Mark says when he was near death, two things saved him, the love of his wife, Nancy, and a dream he had of his granddaughter, Leah, reaching out for his help.

He and his family still have a rough road ahead. Because of the infection, Mark suffered several strokes. The right side of his body is partially paralyzed and he takes 15 medicines a day. Medicare and Medicaid pay for only part of the bills, and bill collectors call almost daily looking for tens of thousands of dollars.

Mark hopes that the prosthetic will get him out in public more, perhaps he'll get a job. Perhaps now he'll have a life something like the one he had before.

TATUM: Look at me now, I may not be beautiful, but I'm damn near it.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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