This post is pretty graphic so steer away if you're not the kind to stomach stuff like this. A 17-year-old girl in China's Fujian Province has just received a new face from skin that was grown on her very own chest.

Again, we warn, the images below are pretty gross.

The girl was five when she sustained horrible burns that left her without a chin, eyelids and most of her right ear. Her family didn't have enough money for treatment at the time but a year ago doctors had the idea to graft skin from her leg to grow face tissue on her chest. According to surgeon Jiang Chenghong:

First, we took a piece of blood vessel fascia from her thigh and implanted it in her chest. Then we inserted a skin expander beneath the part of skin where the blood vessel fascia was planted, so that the part could expand and produce enough skin for her new face.



Doctors grew a specially sized graft over a network of blood vessels from Xu Jianmei's thigh to ensure proper bloodflow. Once doctors felt they had enough healthy tissue growing to keep the face alive, they transplanted it to her face. The operation was completed on Monday, but they'll see just how successful the transplant has been as her face heals.

[China Global Times via Arbroath]