Miracle operation sees man’s face peeled off and his jaw replaced

A Queensland man has undergone marathon 20-hour “Face/Off’ surgery in which the skin was peeled off his face to remove his cancerous jaw.

Patient Paul O’Connor (right) with Mater Private Hospital Brisbane’s Dr Theo Birch

World-leading surgery has been performed in a rare marathon operation in Brisbane that involved peeling the skin off a man’s face to remove his cancerous jaw — preventing the disease from spreading to his brain stem.

The lifesaving “Face/Off’ surgery lasted 20 hours and included cutting out more than half of Paul O’Connor’s lower jaw and then reconstructing his face with bone taken from his leg.

The solicitor was diagnosed with a metastatic melanoma that had spread into his jaw and he was advised he had about six months to live without extreme surgical intervention.

It had all started with a numb patch on his chin.

“I saw multiple specialists before being referred to the Mater Private Hospital Brisbane team,” said Mr O’Connor, 61, of Grafton in northern NSW.

“They advised immediate, radical surgery to give me the best chance of success.”

Mater Private Hospital Brisbane plastic and reconstructive surgeon Theo Birch said the number of similar cases with melanoma as the cause was so rare that no official survival rate statistics are available.

The “face-off” surgery involved cutting out more than half of Paul O’Connor’s lower jaw and then reconstructing his face with bone taken from his leg.

Dr Birch said he and his colleagues – neurosurgeon Damian Amato and ear nose and throat specialists Professor Ben Panizza and James Bowman – form Queensland’s last line of defence before such cancers reach the brain and become inoperable.

“With so few people doing these surgeries globally, it’s fair to say the Mater team are world leaders,” Dr Birch said.

Dr Birch said the surgery involved an incision into Mr O’Connor’s neck, before pulling the skin up and away from his jaw and face.

“To ensure we successfully removed the cancer, we had to take out most of his lower jaw,” Dr Birch said.

“Dr Amato then performed a craniotomy to remove any cancer-affected nerves.”

A piece of bone from Mr O’Connor’s leg was then used to reconstruct the jaw.

Dr Birch said Mr O’Connor's recovery was incredible but it had been a long road to recovery

“Now, his quality of life is excellent and he’s enjoying time with his three-month-old granddaughter Kinsley Mae,” Dr Birch said

Mr O’Connor said going through the challenges had been worth it to be able to spend time with his granddaughter.

“Now you wouldn’t know I’d had the surgery if met me, except there’s a patch of beard missing from the radiation,” he said.