The Surgery That Needed Every Hand

In 2017, a team at Johns Hopkins Hospital performed a groundbreaking face transplant on Katie Stubblefield, a young woman from Mississippi. The operation lasted thirty-one hours and required over one hundred medical professionals working in careful coordination. Surgeons reconnected delicate facial nerves. Anesthesiologists monitored her vitals through the night. Nurses prepared instrument after instrument, anticipating needs before they were spoken.…