3am Art Blog

(CNN) -- Dallas Wiens wanted to feel his 4-year-old daughter's kisses again, something he couldn't do after a horrific electrical accident disfigured his face.

But he'll be able to sense her touch again soon, doctors said Monday, less than two months after Wiens underwent the first full face transplant in the U.S.

In the meantime, Wiens already has little Scarlette's seal of approval. "She actually said, 'Daddy, you're so handsome,' " he said at a news conference Monday. "To her, I'm still Daddy. That in itself is an amazing thing."

Wiens' experience represents a new frontier for reconstructive surgery, said Dr. Jeffrey Janis of Parkland Hospital and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who has treated Wiens from the time of his accident.

His injury happened in November 2008 when Wiens, now 26, was painting his church as a volunteer: His head got too close to a high-voltage power line, and he lost almost his entire face from the burns.

For 90 days, doctors kept him in a medically induced coma while they performed surgeries and he breathed through a ventilator. Many people didn't think he'd make it out of the intensive care unit, Janis said Monday.

But he did survive. Janis connected with Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, Burn Unit director at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts, who had previously performed a partial face transplant. Pomahac became the team leader for more than 30 medical professionals who would take part in Wiens' surgery.