Texas man receives world's first scalp, skull transplant

Peter Weber, The Week US's avatar
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A Texas man got a scalp-skull transplant, a medical first
(Image credit: AP/YouTube)

On Thursday, doctors at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital announced the first partial skull and scalp transplant, performed May 22 on Jim Boysen, 55. Boysen, a software engineer from Austin, also received a kidney-pancreas transplant, his second since 1982. After the first transplant, he developed cancer in the muscle under his forehead, and the organ-rejection suppression medicine prevented healing of the wounds from treating that cancer.

Boysen appears to be taking his new skull and scalp in stride. "It's kind of shocking, really, how good they got it," he told The Associated Press. "I will have way more hair than when I was 21." Learn more about the operation and Boyson's story in the AP video below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber, The Week US
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.