About Face: The Surgeon Behind the Mask

Maria Siemionow M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

“The face is the most visible part of you,” says Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. Unsatisfied with the limited help currently available to restore facial appearance and function, Dr. Siemionow plans on performing a bold new procedure: The world’s first full facial transplant.
 

Dr. Siemionow heads Cleveland Clinic’s Section on Plastic Surgery Research and is on staff with Cleveland Clinic’s Transplantation Center and departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Immunology. Trained as a hand surgeon, she spent some of her early years as a traveling physician working for “Physicians for Peace,” assisting patients in Third World countries.
 

“I worked with many children with congenital deformities and worked with their hands,” Dr. Siemionow says. “Many of them were in severe house fires and covered their faces with their hands. But while I could do something with the hands, not much could be done to their faces at the time.”
 

Those memories may have stuck with her. “Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind that’s what got me into this,” she ponders.
 

Although her life has become a whirlwind since a partial face transplant was performed in France, Dr. Siemionow isn’t deterred from the important work she does with her regular patients – people with diabetic neuropathy, nerve compression and trauma injuries in the hands and feet.
 

When she’s not working, she spends a lot of time behind a camera. She’s a photographer, endlessly drawn to people. “I really like people,” she says, a wide smile crossing her face. “I like photographing people in different countries, on streets, in markets, cafes, young and old, with babies. It is something about their appearances. Perhaps their faces.”