Will Obama visit Nelson Mandela? President flies to South Africa amid speculation he may visit his 'hero' in hospital

Barack Obama said Nelson Mandela's legacy 'will linger on throughout the ages' ahead of his arrival in South Africa today.
The U.S. president paid tribute to the former South African president and called him his 'personal hero' amid speculation that he may pay a visit to the Pretoria hospital where Mandela, also known as Madiba, is clinging to life.
Obama is in the middle of a three-country tour of Africa that the White House hopes will compensate for what some view as years of neglect by the administration of America's first black president.
Yesterday Obama toured Goree Island, a former Senegalese shipping port and stood its the 'Door of No Return', where Africans were forced onto ships to be sold into North American slavery.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama boarded Air Force One earlier to fly to South Africa from Senegal's capital Dakar

People protesting against Obama's visit to South Africa carried placards in Pretoria today

Demonstrators burned an American flag while protesting against the offical visit of Barack Obama in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria

About 800 people marched through Pretoria to voice their opposition to Obama and U.S. policy in South Africa and around the world, while some demonstrators burned an American flag

He said that, as an African American and an African-American president, the trip gave him even greater motivation to stand up for human rights around the world.
Obama has only visited the continent once during his term of office, to make a short visit to Ghana at the beginning of his first term where he said: 'I have the blood of Africa within me.'
'I've had the privilege of meeting Madiba and speaking to him. And he's a personal hero, but I don't think I'm unique in that regard,' Obama told reporters in Senegal yesterday.
'If and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages.'
The White House said it was up to the family to decide if Obama could visit the ailing former president in hospital.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One during his flight to Johannesburg, Obama said, 'We'll see what the situation is when we land.
'I don't need a photo op and the last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned with Nelson Mandela's condition.
'I think the main message we'll want to deliver, if not directly to him, but to his family, is simply profound gratitude for his leadership.'
Mandela, 94, is fighting a lung infection that has left him in a critical condition and in hospital for nearly three weeks.

The White House said it was up to the family of Nelson Mandela to decide if Obama could pay a visit to the ailing former president in hospital

In Cape Town tributes to the ailing former president were painted on stones

The stones left in Cape Town were painted with 'Madiba', Nelson Mandela's tribe name

Mandela is being treated at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, where wellwishers have been leaving tributes since his admission for a recurring lung infection

'DOOR OF NO RETURN': OBAMA PAYS EMOTIONAL VISIT TO FORMER SLAVERY PORT

President Obama spent yesterday afternoon touring a Senegalese island where Africans were shipped across the Atlantic into slavery.
He called the visit a 'very powerful moment.'
Obama says visiting Goree Island with his family helped them fully appreciate the magnitude of the slave trade.
They toured the museum at the Maison des Esclaves where slaves were gathered before going through the 'Door of No Return' and being forced onto ships bound for North America.
The Maison des Esclaves was built between 1780 and 1784 but now it is used as a tourist destination and a museum the tells the horrors that the African slaves faced.
It is believed that a few hundred slaves were shipped through the port on an annual basis until the late 1780s.
Obama also said that, as an African American and an African-American president, the trip gave him even greater motivation to stand up for human rights around the world.
He said the island is a reminder of what happens when civil rights are not protected.
Obama peered out at the crashing waves through the door, at first by himself and later joined by his wife, Michelle, and two daughters.
Emerging minutes later, Obama said the site painted a powerful picture of the magnitude of the slave trade as he reflected on the ties many in the U.S. share with the continent.
Obama's focus in Senegal was on the modern-day achievements of the former French colony after half a century of independence.

His fourth hospitalisation in six months has focused attention in South Africa and globally on the faltering health of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who is admired as a symbol of resistance against injustice and of racial reconciliation.
President Jacob Zuma has said Mandela's condition improved over Wednesday night but he remained critical.
The president has no public engagements planned for this evening when he arrives and it is thought he could make a trip to the hospital then.
Obama's three-day trip includes a visit to Cape Town's Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years imprisoned by the previous white racist South African government.
'We are going to completely defer to the wishes of the Mandela family and work with the South African government as relates to our visit,' deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Senegal.
'Whatever the Mandela family deems appropriate, that's what we're focused on doing in terms of our interaction with them.' 
Today South Africans protesting Obama's visit to their country rallied a few blocks from well-wishers at the hospital in Pretoria where Mandela is critically ill.
About 200 trade unionists, student activists and South African Communist Party members gathered in the capital Pretoria to protest Obama's visit this weekend, calling his foreign policy 'arrogant, selfish and oppressive'.
'We had expectations of America's first black president,' said Khomotso Makola, a 19-year-old law student.
'Knowing Africa's history, we expected more.
'He has come as a disappointment, I think Mandela too would be disappointed and feel let down.'
South African critics of Obama have focused in particular on his support for U.S. drone strikes overseas, which they say have killed hundreds of innocent civilians, and his failure to deliver on a pledge to close the U.S. military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba housing terrorism suspects.
Hundreds of protesters marched to the U.S. embassy in a peaceful protest against Obama's impending visit.
The demonstrators opposed U.S. policy on Cuba, the war in Afghanistan, global warming and other issues.

Some protesters dressed as a Guantanamo detainees to join the 800-strong march against Obama's visit in Pretoria

One placard accused Obama of being a 'Zionist Uncle Tom'. The 'Uncle Tom' refers to the title character faithful slave in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and used to insult a black person perceived as too keen on winning the approval of white people

Outside the Parliament building in Cape Town a young girl held up a placard reading: 'Stop plunder of Africa'

The Pretoria protest was by organised by trade unionists and members of the South African Communist Party

The rally in Pretoria was organized by trade unionists and members of the South African Communist Party.
The protesters want to raise public awareness and warn U.S. citizens about human rights violations committed by the Obama administration, which includes the non-closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison holding terrorism suspects, said campaign coordinator Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
'Their administration's government is not welcome, and is being received with antagonism,' Ndlozi said.
'Therefore they'll have to rethink the standards by which they hold their government.'
Protesters carried signs that read: 'No, You Can't Obama,' a message inspired by the 'Yes We Can' campaign slogan adopted by the president during his first run for election.

Outside Cape Town's parliament building demonstrators protested against America's support of Israel

Demonstrators staged a similar protest outside the Parliament building in Cape Town where Obama's record on human rights and trade relations in Africa were questioned.
'He's coming here to plunder Africa and South Africa,' protester Abdurahman Khan said.
'He's coming for the wealth and resources, for the gold and the diamond mines, while the majority of Africans and South Africans are suffering.'
Protesters also plan to rally Saturday at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus, where Obama will address students and receive an honorary law degree, and on Sunday at the University of Cape Town.
While acknowledging that Obama has not spent as much time in Africa as people hoped, the administration is eager to highlight what it has done, in part to end unflattering comparisons to accomplishments of predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Food security and public aid are two of the issues the Obama team believes are success stories.

Mr and Mrs Obama looked through the 'Door of No Return' while touring the House of Slaves at Goree Island off the coast of Dakar yesterday

Facing history: President Obama took a tour of Goree Island outside of Dakar, Senegal where slaves used to be depart on boats bound for America in the late 18th century

Touring: President Obama was accompanied to Goree Island by his wife Michelle, their eldest daughter Malia, Michelle's mother Marian Robinson and their niece Leslie

'Africa has seen a steady and consistent increase in our overall resource investment each year that we've been in office,' said Raj Shah, head of USAID.
'And sustaining that in this political climate has required real trade-offs to be made in other areas, but we've done that.'
Today, Obama took part in a Feed the Future event on food security, his key Africa policy so far, before leaving Dakar.
He toured displays in small thatched booths at his hotel grounds on a bluff overlooking the ocean, meeting with farmers and entrepreneurs who are using new methods and technologies to advance the cause of food security.

Meaningful: Though the Maison des Esclaves has become a popular tourist destination, it was one of the more minor slave shipping ports in Senegal

Obama arrived at the airport with Senegalese president Macky Sall for his flight to South Africa today

Obama met the head of the Senegalese Federation of Corn Producers, Nimna Diayte, second right, during a food security event today before setting off for South Africa

In brief remarks later, he drew attention to Feed the Future, a public private partnership initiated by his administration that he said has helped seven million small farmers in developing nations, including 7,000 in Senegal.
'This is a moral imperative,' he said. 'I believe that Africa is rising and it wants to partner with us not to be dependent but to be self-sufficient.'
'Far too many Africans endure the daily injustice of poverty and chronic hunger.
'When people ask what's happening to their taxpayer dollars in foreign aid, I want people to know this money's not being wasted. It's helping feed families.'
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and have continued their development work in the region since leaving the Oval Office.
Obama's efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

Obama met Senegalese farmers and entrepreneurs who are using new methods and technologies to advance the cause of food security

Obama pointed to a rice crop before it is processed during a food security exposition in Dakar today

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office.
He is scheduled to come back this summer for what has become an annual visit, with his Clinton Foundation investing in myriad wide-ranging projects in Africa on health, agriculture and climate change.
Bush will be in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet.
Instead, Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organised by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.
Bush's trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

The U.S. president met a rice farmer and other entrepreneurs during the event in Dakar

On this visit, he and Mrs Bush plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the summit.
Witney Schneidman, former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Obama's efforts are not like George W Bush's AIDS initiative 'where you put people on a medicine to save their lives - very, extremely important.
'This is more of a structural change, and I think that's going to take time.'
Schneidman said that the birther movement in the U.S, which questioned where the president was born, was a 'real constraint on dealing with Africa'.
Obama's initiatives for Africa were not attention-grabbing on the continent or back home, said Jennifer Cooke of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Mwangi Kimenyi of the Brookings Insitutions' Africa Growth Initiative said: 'Africans still consider Clinton their president.

Obama is on a three-country tour of Africa, seen at Goree Island near Dakar, Senegal, yesterday where African slaves in past centuries were shipped west

'If you go to Africa and mention Clinton - I mean, he is a hero, even today. I don't think President Obama is going to approach the level of President Clinton at all, in terms of respect, in terms of what they feel, and it's partly because, as one whose family is from Africa, the expectations were rather high.
'I mean, they expected him to do more, to do more visits, to actually relate better with Africans, to understand the continent better.
'There is not that feeling that, you know, we have our son there. There's probably more reference of a prodigal son than a, you know, son.'

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about the condition of Nelson Mandela in Dakar last night ahead of his visit to South Africa today

Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes said the president is signaling increased engagement with the current trip and hopes it will prove to be a 'pivotal moment' of Africa's growth taking off.
'Frankly, Africa is a place that we had not yet been able to devote significant presidential time and attention to,' he said.
'And there's nothing that can make an impact more in terms of our foreign policy and our economic and security interests than the president of the United States coming and demonstrating the importance of our commitment to this region.'
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Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie says he is showing 'great improvement but clinically he is still unwell'

Positive signs: Nelson Mandela is 'showing great improvement', according to his ex-wife

Nelson Mandela is showing a 'great improvement' in his health from a few days ago, his ex-wife said today.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela gave the update on the former South African president while speaking to media outside Mandela's former home in Soweto.
'I'm not a doctor, but I can say that from what he was a few days ago there is great improvement, but clinically he is still unwell,' said Madikizela-Mandela, who is also a member of South Africa's Parliament.
Members of Mandela's family and South African Cabinet ministers have visited the hospital where the 94-year-old is critically ill.
It comes after his daughter said yesterday that he was responding to touch and trying to open his eyes, adding: 'He's still there.'
Makaziwe said that when she went to see him in hospital he was still responsive and conscious.
'I won't lie, it doesn't look good,' she told SABC.
'But if we speak to him, he responds and tries to open his eyes. He's still there. He might be waning off, but he's still there.'
Mr Mandela's granddaughter Ndileka said he was 'stable' and thanked the well-wishers from around the world who have sent their support.
The whole family had been summoned to his bedside yesterday and president Jacob Zuma was believed to have been seen entering the hospital.
'I cancelled my visit to Mozambique today so that I can see him and confer with the doctors,' Mr Zuma said in a statement. 'He is much better today than he was when I saw him last night.'

In the Eastern Cape province, where Mr Mandela grew up, a traditional leader said that the time was near for the former leader, who is also known by his clan name, Madiba.
'I am of the view that if Madiba is no longer enjoying life, and is on life support systems, and is not appreciating what is happening around him, I think the good Lord should take the decision to put him out of his suffering,' said the tribal chief, Phathekile Holomisa.
'I did speak to two of his family members, and of course, they are in a lot of pain, and wish that a miracle might happen, that he recovers again, and he becomes his old self again,' he said.
'But at the same time they are aware there is a limit to what miracles you can have.'

Positive: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of Mr Mandela, tells the media that while he is improving, he was clinically still unwell

Looking on the bright side: Winnie also thanked the media for their support when she made her statement outside his former home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told the state broadcaster: 'Over the past 48 hours, the condition of former president Madiba has gone down.'
A South African newspaper has also reported the icon is on life support, citing numerous sources close to the family.

The Citizen newspaper says Mr Mandela has a team of doctors supporting him at a Pretoria hospital.
One source was quoted as saying that his family had the option to switch off the ventilator.

Consolation: Mr Mandela's daughter Makaziwe, pictured right outside the hospital, said he was 'still there' but admitted that his condition 'doesn't look good'

Family: The leader's granddaughter Ndileka arrived clutching a large bouquet of flowers

Mr Zuma cancelled a trip to neighbouring Mozambique, intensifying speculation about the deterioration of Mr Mandela's condition.
The president made his decision not to leave the country after visiting the 94-year-old late yesterday in the Pretoria hospital where he has been receiving treatment for a lung infection for nearly three weeks.
'Clearly the issue of seriousness has been such that President Jacob Zuma has cancelled his trip,' Mr Maharaj told Talk Radio 702.
He declined to comment on reports that Mandela was on life support, saying: 'I cannot confirm any clinical details.'

Peaceful: 95 children released balloons outside the hospital in honour of Mr Mandela, whose 95th birthday falls next month

Admiration: Two people look at the tributes to Mr Mandela left outside the hospital where he is being treated

CNN also reported that the former president could no longer breathe unaided, quoting an official who 'had been briefed in detail on his condition'.
George Bizos, one of Mr Mandela's closest friends and his former lawyer, told The Daily Telegraph that they had never discussed his wishes towards the end of his life.

'We can only hope for the best, and that is what the doctors decide to do,' he said. 'I am sure that the members of the family are discussing the matter with the doctors but it should probably be primarily the doctors in consultation with the family if the situation is critical.'
Last night a leading clergyman visited Nelson Mandela's bedside to offer prayers for his 'peaceful, perfect end'.
Thabo Makgoba, the Archbishop of Cape Town, issued an emotional statement asking that the former president of South Africa, who is in a critical condition, be released from pain and suffering.

Visit: Barack Obama holds his daughter Sasha's hand as the he and his family land in Dakar, Senegal

However, Mr Mandela apparently opened his eyes and smiled when he was told about Barack Obama's forthcoming visit to the country, according to his daughter.
The statesman was able to show his pleasure at hearing of the U.S. President's visit.

Mr Obama is believed to be keen to meet Mr Mandela, but given the delicate condition of the African leader he will not do so unless he is invited by the Mandela family.
That prospect appeared to be more likely after Mr Mandela's daughter Zindzi described how she told her father that Mr Obama would be touring South Africa.
After she told him 'Obama is coming,' she said, 'He opened his eyes and gave me a smile.'
The U.S. President arrived in Senegal yesterday and travelled to South Africa today during his second trip to Africa since taking office.
Speaking in Dakar, Mr Obama paid tribute to Mr Mandela and insisted his visit to South Africa would go ahead matter what.
He said that the anti-apartheid campaigner had helped inspire him to enter politics with his bravery and self-sacrifice.

Waiting: The balance of Obama's Africa trip could hang on the health of Mr Mandela

'I think he's a hero for the world,' Mr Obama said. 'And if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages.'

Mr Mandela has been in hospital being treated for a lung infection since June 8.

Mr Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalised for a recurring lung infection. This is his fourth hospitalisation since December.
Mandela was jailed for 27 years under white racist rule and was released 23 years ago, in 1990. He then played a leading role in steering the divided country from the apartheid era to an all-race democracy.
As a result of his sacrifice and peacemaking efforts, he is seen by many around the world as a symbol of reconciliation.

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'When I look in the mirror I see myself': Incredible transformation of shotgun victim who had most extensive face transplant surgeons have ever performed

Horribly disfigured after a shotgun accident blew off half his face in 1997, Richard Norris has lived a hermit's life for 16 years - hiding behind a mask and only ever shopping at night.
Each day became a living nightmare as he faced cruelty from strangers whenever he ventured outdoors, fought addiction and contemplated suicide.
But doctors have turned the 37-year-old's life around after performing one of the most complex face transplants in history, giving him new features, teeth, a tongue and a jaw.
And as these latest pictures show, Norris barely turns a single head when he goes out after the ground-breaking surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

As good as new: Richard Norris lost almost his whole face in a gun accident 15 years ago

'When I look in the mirror, I see Richard Norris,' he said remembering the immediate connection he felt with his new face.
'When I was disfigured, just walking the sidewalk, I was surprised that more people didn't walk into telephone poles or break their necks to stare at me.
'Now ... there's no one paying attention. Unless they know me personally, they don't know I am a face transplant patient. That right there is the goal we had.'
He hopes his story sends a message of hope to people in similar situations and encourages empathy in others.

Grateful: Norris sits in the office of Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the surgical team that performed the face transplant

Care: Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez inspects Norris' skin. In the 15 years a shotgun half of Norris' face he faced cruelty from strangers, fought addiction and contemplated suicide

'I've heard all kinds of remarks,' he said. 'A lot of them were really horrible.'
'Those 10 years of hell I lived through, it has given me such a wealth of knowledge,' Norris recently told The Associated Press. 'It's unreal. It has put some of the best people in my life.'
Now, at 38, he's starting a new life: taking online classes in pursuit of a degree in information systems and contemplating a foundation to help defray future transplant patients' everyday expenses during treatment. 
He also has been working with a photojournalist who just completed a book about his journey, titled 'The Two Faces of Richard.'
After the 1997 accident at his home, Norris had no teeth, no nose and only part of his tongue. He was still able to taste but could not smell. When he went out in public, usually at night, he hid behind a hat and mask.
Norris had dozens of surgeries to repair his face, but eventually reached the limits of what conventional surgery could do for him, said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who performed some of those operations and later led the surgical team that performed Norris' face transplant.
Some parts of the anatomy, such as eyelids and lips, are just too complex to recreate, he noted.
'You can create a semblance of something, but I can guarantee you it's not normal by any means.'

Disfigured: When he shot himself in the face in 1997 he lost his nose, lips and most movement in his mouth

Life saving: He has had multiple life-saving, reconstructive surgeries but none as successful as this

Just weeks after Norris was told by another doctor that there was little else that could be done for him, Rodriguez presented him with another option: a transplant.
The doctor, who is head of plastic surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center's R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, had been following advancements in the face transplant field for years.
An Office of Naval Research grant for the purpose of helping wounded warriors made it possible for him and his team to attempt their first face transplant, an operation that previously had been performed by only two other centers in the United States.
The world's first partial face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who was mauled by her dog. Of the 27 other transplants that have followed, four recipients have died, and the survivors face a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs, which can take a toll on their health.

Finally me: For the first time in 15 years, Richard recognizes himself when he looks in the mirror

Good friends: Norris, right, shows friend Andrew Kahle, left, how to load line into a fly fishing rod at Norris' home in Hillsville, Virginia

'Humbled': Norris said he is humbled by the gift he received from the family of 21-year-old donor Joshua Aversano, who died after being struck by a minivan while crossing the street

Now, at 38, he's starting a new life: taking online classes in pursuit of a degree in information systems and contemplating a foundation to help defray future transplant patients' everyday expenses during treatment

Unlike most organ transplant recipients, who need their surgeries to live, face transplant patients are risking death to eliminate a non-life-threatening condition, noted Dr. Mark Ehrenreich, the psychiatric consultant to Norris' transplant team.
Rodriguez says patients are well aware of the situation.
'If you talk to these patients, they will tell you it is worth the risk,' he said.
The team carefully lays out all of the dangers for patients: Norris' mother, Sandra, remembers Rodriguez saying there was a 50-50 chance her son would survive the surgery.
'We looked at Richard and we told him we loved him the way he was and it didn't matter to us, but it was his life,' she said. 'That was what he wanted to do and we supported him.'
Norris said he is humbled by the gift he received from the family of 21-year-old Joshua Aversano, who died after being struck by a minivan while crossing the street. The Maryland family, which agreed to donate his organs, declined to be interviewed by the AP.

Richard says: 'When I was disfigured, just walking the sidewalk, I was surprised that more people didn't walk into telephone poles or break their necks to stare at me'

Message: He hopes his story sends a message of hope to people in similar situations and encourages empathy in others

In a statement, the family said, 'We are grateful Joshua's legacy continues through the lives of the individuals he was able to save with gifts of organ and tissue donation.'
Norris said he speaks to the family regularly and keeps them updated on his life and health.
Norris' 36-hour transplant operation is still considered the most extensive ever conducted because it included transplantation of the teeth, upper and lower jaw, a portion of the tongue and all of the tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck, Rodriguez said.
'The real main limitation ... is that patients are dependent on medication for life,' he said. The immunosuppressant medications carry risks for the patients, who don't know how long the transplant will last. Rodriguez said if all goes well, a transplanted face could last 20 to 30 years.
For Norris, who makes daily visual checks, the risk of rejection is never far from his mind.
'Every day I wake up with that fear: Is this the day? The day I'm going to go into a state of rejection that is going to be so bad that the doctors can't change it?'

Hero: Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, speaks with Norris at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore

New life: Norris completes homework for an online art history college course that he has enrolled in since the operation

When Norris saw his new face in a mirror for the first time, he wrote: 'The only thing I could do was hug Dr. Rodriguez'

But he said he can't let himself worry about it too much, and he knows that he's in good hands.
Norris has come far in the past 15 months, learning how to eat and talk again and adjusting each time his face gains more feeling. He continues with therapy, travels to Baltimore from his home in Hillsville, Va., regularly to see doctors, and still takes pain and immunosuppressant medications. He says his faith in God has carried him through it all; that he has maintained a sense of humor and remained the same person inside.
And he agrees with doctors, who dismiss a commonly held belief that face transplant patients are likely to experience an identity crisis.
The bigger issue for Norris is being able to appear in public again. Facial disfigurement tends not to engender sympathy, leaving patients feeling shunned, Ehrenreich noted.
'Unfortunately, with severe facial disfigurement, people recoil and make comments they would never make to someone in a wheelchair,' he said.

'I have been doing very well regaining my speech back,' Norris said. 'Each day it improves a little more.'
There was, however, one hiccup in the recovery process: the much-feared rejection.
As with any transplant, there was a possibility that Norris’s body would reject his new face. In this case, the rejection was mild and treatable, Rodriguez said.
'When people hear ''rejection,'' they think, ''Oh, my God, the face is going to melt off,''' Rodriguez said.

'That’s not the case at all. The skin got a little bit swollen and there was a little bit of redness. On a scale of 1 to 10,” with 10 being the worst-case scenario, “this was a Grade 1 rejection.'
Still, Norris is not in the clear. He continues to run the risk of rejection and he will have to take medications for the rest of his life.

Rebuilding process: Mr Norris's skull after his accident (left) and as surgeons began to piece it back together (right)

Remarkable: After a 36-hour operation, doctors had reconstructed the lower half of Mr Norris's face

Rodriguez said that one of the most common questions he is asked is: 'How is Richard dealing with having a new face?'
Dr Rodriguez said: 'We always think that there is going to be a facial identity crisis. That’s the worry of people with normal faces. We think how we’d feel if this happened to us.

'But for people with disfigurements — these people have lived lives concealed from society. That’s a very different and difficult recovery.'
Before the transplant, Norris rarely left his home. In addition to wearing a surgical mask and baseball cap on his infrequent trips out in public, he did his shopping at night so he wouldn’t have to face the stares of as many people.
'I am now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look,' he wrote.
After years of going out of his way to avoid people, Norris is surprisingly comfortable socializing now, Rodriguez said. 'Everybody (at the hospital) knows him. He’s such an animated guy.'
While Norris’s results are 'extraordinary,' Rodriguez said the full recovery will take more time.
There’s the challenge of teaching Norris, who has not eaten or spoken properly for 15 years, to use his fully functional face.

The teeth plus the tongue is a lot to get used to when someone has gone so long without them, Rodriguez said. Additionally, minor surgery is planned for the soft tissue of his face, such as the eyelids where there is extra skin.
But more than anything else, there is a looming question. Even with immuno-suppressing drugs, doctors say they have no idea how long the transplant will last. There is an expectation that they will have to repair or replace the transplant eventually.
Dr Rodriguez looks with hope to earlier face transplants. The world’s first full face transplant took place in Spain in 2010 and is aging well two years later. The first partial transplant was done in France in 2005, and Rodriguez said its longevity is promising.
'I’d like to hit that 10-year mark with Richard,' he said. 'Of course, we can’t promise anything, but 10 years would be great.'
In the meantime, Norris said he is excited to fish, golf and spend time with his family and friends.
'My friends have moved on with their lives, starting families and careers,' he said. 'I can now start working on the life given back to me.'

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