Before
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Erin Crea decided to venture out of her house alone and go to the mall. But something went wrong before her plan came to fruition. The last thing she remembered was leaving her driveway – and instead of shopping at the mall, she woke up in an emergency room.
Onyinye Udebuani survived a car accident in 2018 that severely disfigured her face, changing not only her looks but the course of her life. She was a passenger in the collision that killed three others.
Shamira Reeves was a toddler in Africa when her tiny torso and arms were burned by boiling water that her stepmother poured on her, webbing her arms to her body and crippling her.
NFL star Alex Smith's life changed in a matter of seconds in 2018. One moment the quarterback was running toward the 40-yard line, and the next he was steamrolled to the ground by the opposing team's J.J. Watt and Kareem Jackson. The tackle shattered the bones in Smith's lower leg – and potentially his dream of ever playing football again.
Plastic surgeon Paul Cederna, MD, has always been interested in solving some of the most challenging issues in reconstructive surgery. He co-leads the Neuromuscular Lab at the University of Michigan, which focuses on developing futuristic technology that uses an amputee's nerves to control a prosthetic limb.
It's hard to imagine what it would be like to go from being a 19-year-old college football player who could do practically anything he wanted physically, to being unable to move. This became Marc Buoniconti's harsh reality after he collided with another player, dislocated his neck and sustained a spinal cord injury.
When Blake Haxton reached his senior year of high school, the rowing season had just started when he noticed soreness in his lower right leg. The next morning was an ordinary Monday, but the pain in his leg was anything but.
Fractional CO2 laser therapy is a promising treatment for patients with burn scars. This noninvasive procedure uses laser energy to break down scar tissue, revealing softer and smoother skin beneath.
Today's young patients have benefited from innovations in craniofacial surgery that began in the late 1960s. Advances in three-dimensional imaging, for example, have helped plastic surgeons like Jesse Goldstein, MD, see how to improve the shape and function of a pediatric patient's head and face.
Plastic surgery has advanced considerably since its origins as a treatment for injured soldiers. From rudimentary surgeries during World War I, it has now grown to full limb transplants for troops who have lost their arms, restoring function and giving them a chance at living a more normal life.