The face lies on a surgical tray, eyes empty and unseeing, mouth agape, as if exclaiming, "Oh!"
那张脸被放在手术托盘上,眼睛空洞而无神,嘴巴张得大大的,好像在喊:“哦!”。
Sixteen hours ago surgeons in Operating Room 19 at the Cleveland Clinic began the delicate work of removing the face from a 31-year-old woman who was declared legally and medically dead three days earlier. Soon they will take it to a 21-year-old woman who has waited more than three years for a new face.
在此16个小时前,美国克利夫兰诊所19号手术室的外科医生开始了一项细致的工作,从一位现年31岁的女士头上取下其脸部,此人三天前在法律和医学上被宣布死亡。不久,他们将把这张脸移植在等待了三年多的21岁女性凯蒂·斯图布尔菲尔德的脸上。
For a moment, the face rests in its astonished solitude.
有那么一会儿,这张脸显得如此神圣。
Surgeons, residents, and nurses, suddenly silent, gaze at it in awe as clinic staff, like unusually polite paparazzi, move in with cameras to document it. The face, deprived of blood, grows pale. With each second of detachment, it looks more like a 19th-century death mask.
外科医生、住院医生和护士突然集体沉默下来,怀着敬畏的心情注视着它,而诊所的工作人员,像异常礼貌的狗仔队一样,带着摄像机走进来拍摄它。这张没有血色的脸显得苍白。随着每一秒时间的流逝,它看起来更像是19世纪的死亡面具。
Frank Papay, a veteran plastic surgeon, picks up the tray, carrying it carefully in his gloved hands, and walks to Operating Room 20, where Katie Stubblefield waits.
经验丰富的整形外科医生弗兰克·帕佩伊拿起托盘,用戴着手套的手小心翼翼地拿起它,走向20号手术室,斯图布尔菲尔德正在那里等着
Katie will be the youngest person to receive a face transplant in the United States. Her transplant, the clinic's third and the 40th known in the world, will be one of the most extensive, making her a lifelong subject in the study of this still experimental surgery.
斯图布尔菲尔德将成为美国接受换脸手术最年轻的人。她的移植手术是克利夫兰诊所进行的第三次、也是世界上已知的第40次类似手术,她将成为这个仍处于实验阶段的手术的终生研究对象。
Looking down at the face he carries, Papay feels a kind of reverence. It's an amazing thing, he thinks, what some people will do for others—to give them a heart or a liver, even a face. He says a silent prayer of thanks and takes the face to its next life.
看着双手捧着的脸,帕佩伊油然而生出一种敬畏感。他认为,有些人为别人所做的奉献如此之大,包括给他们心脏或肝脏,甚至是一张脸,这是一件多么令人惊奇的事情。他默默地祈祷着,感谢上帝,然后让这张脸走向新生。