The match : complete strangers, a miracle face transplant, two lives transformed

by Susan Whitman Helfgot, William Novak (Contributor)

Joseph Helfgot, the son of Holocaust survivors, worked his way from a Lower East Side tenement to create a successful Hollywood research company. But his heart was failing. After months of waiting for a heart transplant, he died during the operation. Hours after his death, his wife Susan was asked a shocking question: would she donate her husband’s face to a total stranger?

The stranger was James Maki, the adopted son of parents who spent part of World War II in an internment camp for Japanese Americans. Rebelling against his stern father, a professor, by enlisting to serve in Vietnam, he returned home a broken man, addicted to drugs. One night he fell facedown onto the electrified third rail of a Boston subway track.

A young Czech surgeon who was determined to make a better life on the other side of the Iron Curtain was on call when the ambulance brought Maki to the hospital. Although Dr. Bohdan Pomahac gave him little chance of survival, Maki battled back. He was sober and grateful for a second chance, but he became a recluse, a man without a face. His only hope was a controversial face transplant, and Dr. Pomahac made it happen.

In The Match, Susan Whitman Helfgot captures decades of drama and history, taking us from Warsaw to Japan, from New York to Hollywood. Through wars and immigration, poverty and persecution, from a medieval cadaver dissection to a stunning seventeen-hour face transplant, she weaves together the story of people forever intertwined—a triumphant legacy of hope.

Genres: Nonfiction, Medical, Science, Medicine

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2010

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been an organ donor as long as I can remember. In my teens I needed my parent's signature in order to donate my corneas if I should expire. As I got older and medical science progressed I thought it was wonderful that if something should happen to me, my kidneys, pancreas, what have you might be able to give new life to someone waiting for an organ. I have three friends on the wait list at this moment. As much as I believed in organ donation, when heart transplants became a reality, I was a bit squeamish. I think this had something to do with reading too many horror stories where illegal harvesting of organs was part of the plot. Common sense finally won out and I decided that whatever organ or tissue could be of use to someone else was ok by me. I've made my wishes known to my family and have organ donor designation on my Connecticut Driver's license.

Given all of this, reading The Match:Complete strangers, a miracle face transplant, two lives transformed by Susan Whitman Helfgot was a natural for me. Susan's husband, Joseph Helfgot was the recipient of a heart transplant in 2010. He died during the operation that was meant to save his life. He believed in organ donation as did his wife. Not only did Susan agree that Joseph's recently transplanted heart should be donated to someone else on the list, but she also agreed to have her beloved Joseph's face donated to a stranger in a ground breaking procedure.

Of course the transplant in itself is an interesting story. What makes this the five star read it is, is the picture you take away with you of Joseph Helfgot, the donor, and Jim Maki, the man receiving the face.
The idea of face transplants is fairly new and not without its opponents. Reading this book, it is easy for me to see the need for what some call a non-life threatening procedure. Imagine living with such facial disfigurement, just a hole where your nose and mouth used to be, not being able to eat, to blow your nose, let alone look even remotely acceptable to society as Jim Maki did? Others have faces that have been so badly damaged by burns, animal attacks, war or accidents. To be able to give these people new lives is amazing.

The meshing of the lives of Joseph and Jim and each of their stories is expertly told by Susan Whitman Helfgot and biographer William Novak. I came away with such warm regard for Joseph for the man he was and respect for Jim for allowing his story be told. I have deep admiration for Susan Helfgot and her family who so readily saw the need, respected Joseph's wishes and were willing to go public with their grief and pain. It is an incredible story of everything coming together; the organ donor banks, the doctor, Bohdan Pomahac, who believed that a face transplant could work, his team and the hospital that agreed to take the chance.

Highlights for me...When Jim's face first pinks after the first connection of vessels during the operation, you want to cheer. When Jim first realizes he is growing a beard, something he has never been able to do before, I got chills. Reading about Jim Maki's first look in the mirror and the new face that looked back was a wonderful moment. As worried as everyone was that it was too soon and perhaps Jim was not ready, I applauded his bravery and sense of humor when he said "The guy who orchestrated this did a good job". Susan hugs Jim when they first meet and when she leaves she kisses his cheek and thinks, this is Joseph's skin. How amazing!

Listen to Joseph and Susan Helfgot at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g7GqadRK...

See the trailer for the book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my6MgAgxj...

See Jim Maki, plastic surgeon, Dr. Bohdan Pomahac in this video
@ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jaJzp9_2...

[Raphael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The match: complete strangers, a miracle face transplant, two lives transformed by Susan Whitman Helfgot was a very interesting story. Besides having to quickly read it, with all the information I could absorb the book was something very different from other books I have read. Jim Maki has the face transplant happen on himself. All the steps leading up to Jim’s transplant and after make the book so personal. You experience everything with Jim. Joseph Helfgot, the donor decided to be a donor prior to his death which allowed the recipient to have a face transplant. Another factor that allowed me to enjoy this book even more, was the fact that Susan Helfgot had the bravery to and strength to show her husbands story and Maki’s. The only hung I’d have to complain about is the constant going back in forth. It was kind of difficult to recall the events.

[Sequoia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nonfiction book about Joseph Helfgot and Jim Maki is truly unalike anything I have read before. A face transplant is rarely heard of, but the fact that it’s true makes it even more interesting. Helfgot’s wife tells the story of this procedure and effectively shows the immensity that it holds. The story is so powerful and uplifting. My only critique is the time frames. It tends to go back and forth a lot, and it gets confusing to try to remember what was happening in each time period. But otherwise, I really enjoyed this book.

[Jim Gleason · Rating 5 out of 5]

the second American face transplant real-life story as told by the donor's widow.

see this and more than a hundred other organ donation/transplant related books - many with my personal reviews - at http://www.trioweb.org/resources/book...

[Mary Kleinheksel · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT story! Very compelling!!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her husband’s nose is now on a man with brown eyes and dark hair. And it really is Joseph’s nose on Maki.

Although I live in Boston and have been going to doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for more than a decade, I learned of the facial transplant story by watching the documentary BostonMed last summer. When I heard that Susan Whitman Helfgot [with William Novak] wrote a book about it, I immediately had to read it. The Match is a book that is several things rolled into one: the story of organ donation and the transplant process; a great love story; and a story of hope and renewal.

Susan Helfgot writes the compelling story of the last kind act her husband made that will forever affect Maki and his family. The same age, both men led vastly different lives. Biographical elements weave in between hospital scenes. The Match delves into both men’s pasts and creates vivid portraits for the reader.

Joseph Helfgot was a sociology professor at Boston University when he met Susan. A convivial man, he developed a successful music marketing business in Los Angeles. The son of Holocaust survivors, Joseph had a keen work ethic and a zest for magical moments whether at a Hollywood screening, having rooftop dinners with his wife or spending Passover with his family. On the other hand, James Maki is a Vietnam veteran and former drug-addict. A horrific accident—a fall onto the electrical third track at an MBTA subway station—left him without a face and with little hope to change his life and improve his relationship with his college-aged daughter.

The hand surgeons have started attaching the sentinel flap. While they work, Pomahac and Pribaz begin to connect nerves on either side of Maki’s face, using a technique known as neurorrhaphy. It is painfully slow going as the doctors knit together Helfgot’s and Maki’s tiny nerves, one suture at a time. Nerves near the surface will provide sensation, allowing Maki to feel steam rising from a cup of hot coffee or a light breeze on a warm day. Other nerves, sutured deeper in the face, will one day allow him to chew and swallow. They are piecing together a kind of 3-D jigsaw puzzle, one tiny segment at a time.

The Match includes a detailed description of the exhaustive, intense and amazing surgery. A world-renowned teaching and research hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital is home to the finest surgical team of varied specialists, led by Dr. Bo Pomahac, director of Brigham and Women’s Burn Center; and Dr. Julian Pribaz, director of the Harvard Plastic Surgery Resident Program. The team completes the second face transplant in the United States [this leads to a huge Department of Defense grant to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for more surgeries]. Personally, I have been to see Dr. Pribaz [for exploratory hand surgery on an edema], a supremely kind, talented plastic surgeon who travels the world reconstructing noses and other body parts.

Reinforcing the importance of organ donation through the story of two men who never meet but whose lives intersect in a remarkable manner, The Match is a vastly informative and engulfing read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be biased on this book, since this subject is of great interest to me right now, but this is a well-done narrative of the nation's second face transplant, which mixes in vivid descriptions of the upbringing and present day lives of both the donor, Joseph Helfgot, and the recipient, Vietnam Vet Jim Maki.

Maki fell onto the electrifed third rail of train tracks near Boston, burning off most of the middle of his face. I've seen photographs of what he looked like before the surgery, and it's not hard to believe the book's assertion that he stayed indoors most of the time afterward because of the horrified reactions he often got when he went out in public.

The donor, Joseph Helfgot, was a hyperactive research guru whose audience measurements were used by Hollywood movie producers. He had a bad heart, and had gone to Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston for a heart transplant. He received it, but died on the operating table. That is when his wife, Susan, the co-author of the book, agreed to donate his face. She went on to meet Maki in person, so she also knows up close how much his appearance may resemble that of her late husband.

The book is done in the present tense you-are-there style, so readers have to suspend their disbelief to accept the descriptions of what people were thinking at given moment, exactly what they said or even what the weather might have been.

You learn enough about the medical aspects of face transplants to give you a good idea of how the procedure is done, but this is ultimately more a book about the lives of the donor family and the recipient and his family than a medical procedural.

Well worth the read, particularly if you are interested in this field. Also, I can say without hesitation that there is a strong ethical justification for doing transplants on people like Jim Maki or Connie Culp, who received the first face transplant in the U.S. at the Cleveland Clinic. Their faces were so damaged (Connie's by a shotgun blast from her husband) and they lack such basic functions (eating, sight, etc.) that getting a new face is as much about restoring normal activities as it is about appearance.

[Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the nature of the topic, there are very few people in the world with the type of perspective that the author brings to this book. Transplants are relatively rare but face transplants are not only almost non-existent but also difficult to comprehend. Will the recipient look like the donor? What kind of a person would be willing to donate the face of a loved one to a complete stranger? How does one even ask a family to donate the face of a loved one? Will the face work normally in the recipient considering all of the nerves, blood vessels, muscle, etc that need to be re-connected? All of these questions and more are answered in this book. For that reason alone, the book is informative and interesting. It also tends to make the reader stop and think ---what would I do? For all of these reasons, I am glad that i read the book. The story itself was sometimes hard to follow because the author jumped across decades sometimes in the same chapter. The recipient's surgical preparation for the transplant would be described in one chapter and then seemingly out of nowhere, we would be taken back to the childhood of the recipient. Although the new information would be informative and provide context, it was also distracting enough that sometimes when we returned to the present, the impact was lessened. It was intriguing that the recipients family was of Japanese-American descent and the donor's family was of Jewish, Holocaust surviving descent. Two very different families with very different life experiences joined together by the transplant of a very personal, outwardly visible part of the body. The photos included in the book, the description of the meeting between the recipient and the wife of the donor, and the wife's personal recollections of what she was thinking in numerous situations were in retrospect essential components of the story.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book...I wish I could it 4 1/2 stars. The only thing I had a hard time with is the writing style at points. The author switches from present test to past tense frequently and it was hard to keep up with at times- to me she would have been better off just using past tense the whole time. Anyway-the other thing that bothered me is I feel she did not tie up some of the loose ends of the historical accounts of both men's lives- for example: How did Joseph's mother end up leaving Auswitch and how was she reunited with her husband and children? She talks about the children being taken away, but never their return or how the family made it to the United States. That doesn't have a whole lot to do with the story line, other than background history on the face donor- Joseph Helfgot. I really loved the book, though, and the description of both families and lives changed through this miraculous face transplant. The whole thing fascinates me!

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I became interested in this story after seeing it on an episode of 'Boston Med'. I thought the book would provide a little more background on the donor, the recipient, and the complicated process of a face transplant, and it did accomplish that. It's certainly an interesting story, but I feel like the writing was a little disorganized. The story jumps around a lot, and I sometimes had trouble keeping up. This didn't necessarily detract from the story, as it's not really important to know the exact timeline of all the events. But it was enough to make me have to stop from time to time and think about where we were in the story.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story but it feels incomplete and definitely disjointed. It switched constantly from present day to the past with two of the main characters, which was confusing. They also made no mention of the outcome of the heart transplant surgery. Not even a "we have zero details..." One notable factual mistake (and a completely unnecessary mention in my mind) was regarding Terri Schiavo. It stated she was "kept alive by a ventilator for 15 years until a court demanded it be disconnected". She was not kept alive with a ventilator. She had a feeding tube and hydration stopped. Karen Ann Quinlan 's situation might have been a more relevant example for this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-crafted, heartwarming, and true story of how courage and generosity can bring meaning and purpose to a devastating loss. I was not surprised that it made me cry, but did not expect to laugh -- and I did! The author did a msterful job of weaving together stories that made each player in the drama come to life -- not as perfect superheros, but as flesh and blood people who struggled as we all do.

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wasn't able to finish it. I love the story (saw it featured on the finale of Boston Med), but the switching back and forth between characters/time periods is so jolting I couldn't enjoy what what would have been a riveting story of 2 families and the hospital that brought them together.

[Ellen Ball]

A beautiful and tragic story, along with the hope brought by the enormous generosity of organ donation. I hope many people read this and more importantly that many people sign-up as organ donors. Read and sign-up.

[Arliegh Kovacs · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked this up I mistakenly thought it was a novel. I was surprised to find that this was a true story. I had not even realized that such miracles as face transplants were possible. An interesting read about a subject I might have missed learning about.

[Donna Medina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very moving. Both stories (the donor's and the recipient's) were conveyed with equal compassion by the authors. I applaud Susan's strength and courage in revealing the details of her husband's illness and death and the subsequent donation of his face to Mr. Maki.

[Erin Shull · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is simply amazing and inspirational. I love the story itself, although the writing is not exactly superb. It is definitely worth checking out and is a quick read.

[Maryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow to start, but once the story got going, it was really interesting. I liked that there was no attempt to whitewash the recipient's background.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good story about a face transplant by the wife of the donor.