Master Sgt. Todd Nelson lost his right eye and ear in a flash when a car bomb in Afghanistan exploded, sending fire up his arm and over his head. Although it's taken years of painstaking work, the military has given him a bright blue eye and ear lightly freckled and pinked from summer sun. They're not flesh and blood, but the glass and silicon replicas are so realistic, so perfectly customized, that they've given Nelson something else: the ability to face the world without shocking it.
當一枚汽車炸彈在阿富汗爆炸時，尼爾森士官長剎那間失去了右眼和右耳，火焰往上延燒，燒傷他的胳膊和頭部。但經過多年痛苦的重建，軍方已經給他1個明亮的藍色眼睛和被夏日艷陽晒紅並長了點雀斑的耳朵。他們不是血肉之軀，但這些玻璃和矽複製品如此栩栩如生，又如此完美地量身定製，他們給了尼爾森其他東西：他可以坦然面對世界，不致引起旁人側目驚心。
“Honestly, people really don't know it's artificial,” said Nelson, whose injuries three years ago included third-degree burns, a skull fracture and broken jaw. “In casual social interactions, I see much smaller cases where people stare.”
「說實話，一般人並不知道這是人造的。」尼爾森說，他3年前受傷，包括3度灼傷，頭骨碎裂，下顎損毀。「在社交休閒互動時，我看到一些更輕微的病例已經引人側目。」
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought a new kind of patient to the facial prosthetics lab at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas: wounded warriors, who have recently suffered heavy burns and multiple traumas. The lab is one of two major facial prosthetic programs in the Defense Department, and it has seen an unprecedented new stream of wounded soldiers.
伊拉克和阿富汗戰爭使一批新的傷殘病患，湧入位於德州聖安東尼奧拉克蘭空軍基地的顏面矯正整形實驗室：這些傷殘戰士最近才遭受嚴重灼傷及多重創傷。該實驗室是美國國防部兩大顏面矯正整形方案之一，那裡並出現前所未見新一批的傷兵就診。
Before the wars, the 26-year-old lab's patients were almost exclusively cancer and civilian trauma survivors, but “all of that prepared us for wartime, and that's really why our department is here,” said lab director Dr. Joe Villalobos. The lab doesn't track how many soldiers wounded from the war it's treated. Now, partly because the lab is across town from the Army's only burn center, wounded warriors make up about 1/5 of the roughly 425 patients they treat each year.
這個已經有26年歷史的實驗室，戰前幾乎只收容癌症病患及多半是平民的創傷倖存者，但「所有這一切都讓我們為戰時做好準備，這其實才是我們這個部門在這裡的真正功能。」實驗室主任比利亞洛沃斯醫生說。該實驗室並未追蹤，到底有多少戰爭傷兵接受治療。現在，部分因為該實驗室就在小鎮對面軍中唯一一個燒燙傷中心裡，他們每年治療的傷兵約占1/5，約425起病例。
Facial prosthetics can be a life-changing milestone for patients who have lost an eye, ear, or nose or sustained damage to intraoral structures. For many years, such people were forgotten patients who had to live with these obvious deformities. Many of them avoided social situations and interactions. But thanks to advances in science and technology, a near-normal appearance can be restored with a new prosthetic eye, ear, or nose.
顏面矯正整形手術可以是改變傷殘病患人生的一個里程碑，這些病人或失去一隻眼、耳、鼻，或口腔組織持續受損。多年來，這類病人被社會遺忘，不得不忍受明顯的畸形。他們很多人避免出入社交場合或與人互動，但拜科技進步之賜，有新的人工眼耳鼻，可以修復到幾近正常的外觀。
Patients at Lackland are treated with a combination of cutting-edge technology and carefully hand-hewed prosthetics. Using specially designed computer equipment, technicians can turn an MRI into three-dimensional molds and create custom-fit pieces to replace missing jaw bones or sections of skull for implant. The lab has even done it remotely, creating a perfectly fitting replacement for one-third of a patient's skull at a hospital in Balad, Iraq, Villalobos said.
拉克蘭在治療患者時，結合尖端技術和手工精心打造的人工器官。使用專門設計的電腦儀器和設備，技術人員可以把核磁共振造影塑造成3維模具，再量身裁製不同的器官再植入，以取代失去的顎骨或部分顱骨。該實驗室甚至做到遠距手術，量身創造一個完美合身的器官，供遠在伊拉克巴拉德醫院的病人更換1/3的頭顱，比利亞洛沃斯說。
Not everyone who loses an ear, eye or nose tip is interested in getting a new one. After the memory of what you used to look like begins to fade, “you start to accept who you are,” said Nelson, a 37-year-old Army mechanic from Evergreen, Colo. And because burn patients typically undergo dozens of surgeries （Nelson is at 43 and counting）, many are simply too procedure-weary to seek prosthetic ears or noses. But Nelson said for himself, “one of the things that bothered me the most aesthetically was the missing ear.” He knew getting a prosthetic right ear, sculpted to match his remaining ear on the left, wouldn't make a functional difference. “It was for form, but I couldn't help but want some of my form back,” he said, Nelson sometimes wears a hair piece to cover his burned scalp. （pictured, AP）
但並非每個失去一隻耳朵、眼睛或鼻尖的人，都有興趣裝個新的。在你開始忘了原來的長相後，「就會開始接受你是誰。」來自科羅拉多州長青市37歲的陸軍技工尼爾森說。由於燒傷患者通常要動數十次手術（尼爾森已經動了43次，而且還沒完沒了），很多人實在太厭煩這些手術，決定不再裝人工耳鼻。但尼爾森述說自己的情況，「在外觀上最困擾我的是1隻耳朵不見了。」他明明知道依據他剩下的左耳量身定製人工右耳，在功能上不會有任何差異。他說：「但這只是針對外表，我忍不住想找回一些正常的外貌。」尼爾森有時戴假髮，蓋住他被燒傷的頭皮（圖／美聯社）。
Nelson's ear took about two years to complete, in part because his caregivers had to fight growth of scar tissue that kept covering the titanium implants and creating uneven skin on the side of his head. Nelson said he was shocked at how realistic the fake ear turned out even after going through multiple fittings and coloration sessions to match his skin tone and freckles. “I do feel like I have the best-looking one ever made,” he smiled.
尼爾森的耳朵花了約2年時間才完成，部分原因是他的照護者必須不斷整修掉一直增生的傷疤組織，它們不斷覆蓋鈦植入物，使他頭側皮膚凹凸不平。尼爾森說，經過多次和他的膚色搭配和上色以及再加上小雀斑後，他對人工耳朵仿真的程度感到震驚。他笑著說：「我覺得我現在有一隻最漂亮的人工耳朵。」
To create prosthetic ears, the lab uses cameras that generate 3-D images for technicians to make molds. While adhesive can be used to keep prosthetic ears in place, younger patients like Nelson often opt for titanium implants that allow the prosthetic to magnet on. When a patient has one ear remaining, a mirror-image ear is created. Two missing ears are more difficult, said Villalobos, but the lab has created ears using family members as models. One soldier wanted his father's ears, so the lab took images and created versions that were smaller and less wrinkly to make sure the prosthetic versions were right for the soldier's age. “But if someone comes in and says ‘I want Clint Eastwood ears,’ we can do that,” he said, grinning.
要建立人工義耳，實驗室技術人員用照相機生成3維圖像再製造模具。雖然可用粘合劑使人工耳朵到位，但像尼爾森這種年輕患者往往寧可用鈦植入，使假耳像磁鐵般牢牢黏住。當病人還剩一隻耳朵時，可以創建一個鏡像耳朵；如果兩耳都不見了，手術比較困難，比利亞洛沃斯說，但該實驗室還是會使用家人的耳朵為樣板打造義耳。一名士兵就要求以他父親的耳朵為藍本，實驗室會先創造圖像，再塑造出較小、皺紋較少的耳朵，以確保人工耳朵適合士兵的年齡。他笑著說：「但如果有人進來說：『我要克林特伊斯威特的耳朵。』我們也可以辦到。」