Feeling all right . Thats good. What we didnt really realise is what we were up against. Facial transplantation has a lot of risks. Squeeze. Relax. Hes notjust going to have this procedure and everythingsjust going to be smooth sailing. Its good that African American patients that suffer from major facial deformities are aware that there is an option for them. I got a phone call and he says, oh, we have your dad. We just all got in the car and we rushed over there, so. They described exactly what happened with the accident, and then, i was just in shock. Yeah. One thing i like about my dad is his love for the lord. I can really lean on that. The role of faith means everything to my godfather. We were thrilled and our prayers had been answered when he woke up. But what we didnt really realise is what we were up against. He was burned over 75 of his body, mostly upper body. He had lost his lips, a part of his nose, a part of his ear. He was almost unrecognisable. My godfather has since been through upwards to 40 surgeries. If it were me or somebody else, we would dwell on whether or not we were going to survive, or dwell on how we looked. You know, hes the type of person thats always going to ask you how youre doing, even when hes sitting in pain. We then had to wait almost two years before we received a donor. He said, were not going to accept the donor. And i was like, what . Wait, skrrt lets talk about this. It was quite significant when you think about, you know, how he was going to look afterwards. Theres a serious lack of donors in the black community and minority communities, as it relates to the need. My godfather had to be prepared, packed, and ready to fly to boston from los angeles the next morning. You had this whole accident, and then now, all of a sudden, you have a whole facial transplant, and go through a whole � nother situation. Im like, why are you doing it . Hows my friend . Hey there. Youre hanging in there, youre doing good . Good to see you, too. You look good. Yeah. Feeling all right . I realise hes doing it for health purposes. Now im like, oh, 0k. I kind of see the benefits of it. Im so happy for you yeah, thats right the fundamental principle of all Transplantation Is that we recover organ in our case, its the face then we package it and cool it down, so that it doesnt l require as much energy when it doesnt have blood flow. I and we literally bring it to robert, Whose Old Scarred face is partially removed. Some of the things that are left behind remaining structure ofl the nose, for example, remnants of lips that he had. And then, the new face is essentially brought and l gradually connected l the nerves, the vessels, the arteries, everything. Im doing good. Ill be better in about 15 hours, but. Could be 24, so i dont know. Yeah. So many logistical things that well have to figure out. I they laugh thank you. Not going anywhere so, what we will do is well probably be able to get the scalp somewhere all the way up here, i maybe even a little bit back, but just about there. In this case, the donor was in another state, so it required flyingi to recover and back. The deciding factor how far we can travel and where the donor can be from is the time that we have between when the blood flow through the tissue stops to the time when. Its re established. Facial transplantation has. A lot of risks. The Ideal Scenario is that we come with the donor face, and robert would be on the or table with everything ready to go. So all the vessels l would be prepared, all the nerves would be prepared. All the structures are essentially ready to be connected. Welcome. We all know about disparitiesj in health and health delivery, and its good that African American patients that suffer from major facial deformities are aware that i there is an option for them. He came out and, believe it or not, he was already moving. There were already facial expressions. I really do see the same person. Now, what looks really different is he has hair. It actually is funny because the next day, you see the hair growing. Doesnt matter that. Its on someone else, it just continues to do. The things that it does. Its probably one of the most amazing experiences ive ever seen. I saw the picture, but to see him first time was, like, shocking, overwhelmed, and ijust started crying. And then, i had to ease myself into it. Its like, you can close your eyes and say, oh, my dad looks like this, thats great. And his accident was like this, and it made him look like this. And as soon as you open your eyes, youre like, where is your dad . Hes a different man. Like, that man, like, i dont know, like, i would have been like, hey, how are you . Like, make a regular conversation with him, like i dont even know him. How are you, robert . Your temperature is still a little bit high. Its not too high, but its like a low grade temperature its 99. 0. Thats a lot for one day, too, riuht . ,. , one day at a time, robert. All types of things are going on with this. Hes a science experiment. And then, all of a sudden, youre wondering, what is really wrong with you . Is this face really worth it . Ebony hasjust been amazing. Both of her parents are ill, both are elderly, and she moves from one house to the other, splitting her week. Having parents that are ill and being the only child is hard. But you have to know inside your heart, you are willing to sacrifice some of your life. They sacrificed for you. Are you willing to sacrifice for them . I met robert through his tragic car accident, where i pulled him from the car. Ironically, that particular night, i was finishing a job, and i left particularly early that day. I took a different route than i usually took, and as i was coming over the off ramp, i literally thought a missile came across the freeway. So, i pulled forward, pulled where i saw the explosion and the fire, pulled up to it, and ran to the first vehicle. I noticed that it was fully engulfed in flames, and i couldnt see anything inside, so i ran to the other vehicle that was in front of it. Saw the driver passed out, drunk, window was broken, but i could smell the alcohol, and he was snoring. So, im like, hes ok. So, i went back to the other vehicle, then thats when i saw Robert Chelsea on fire, flailing around, screaming. I did pull him out, he fell on top of me. He said, what happened . I said, a vehicle hit you. He goes. Roberts. This is one of the things that remains in my mind. Roberts first words to me were, hows the other driver . Is he 0k . And i said, yes, sir, hes fine. And i tried to get him to move, and he screamed, because his skin was completely melted. I said, we need to leave now, or were both going to die. Then, as soon as we got to my truck, his fuel tank exploded. The vehicle popped up in the air, about 16ft in the air. There was actually marks on the top of the freeway wall from his tyres. Pretty traumatic for robert. Robert, do you want to say grace . I have been blessed to have been introduced to robert. Robert and i have become very, very, very close friends. When do you have to go back to boston . Did it help . Good. Ive explained this to you before, but. Yourfaith gives me tremendous strength. Yeah, you had hair. Yeah, it was receding, but you had hair. Uhhuh. Right. It was joyful. I was very happy, and i. I just saw the people around. And it was just finally, you know, i accomplished getting my high school diploma. Even though i got it late, i still succeeded. You can never be too old to finish getting your diploma. Even today, a year later, easing in is still a little process for me, but im getting much better than i was before. Even today, a year later, easing in is still a little process for me, but im getting much better than i was before. Roberts Transplant Surgery was over a year ago, and due to the coronavirus restrictions| on travel, we postponed his in person visits for now a number of months. A year out, i think. Roberts doing great. Hes progressing well from the transplant standpoint. | i think, for him, i the Biggest Issue is adjustment of his daily life to the new routine. The overarching problem| that were trying to avoid is rejection. Every patient develops a rejection. The body essentially is trying to get rid of tissues that it recognises at a given time as foreign. Yeah, we need to open up the eyes a bit, huh . Look at that that would be better, wouldnt it . So, there are things. We could do surgically to make things better, but we dont have to. I everything kind of sagged down by gravity. And by the fact that the new face is not as strongly connected to the bone. And i would have to open up the entire incision all around so all the way around your head, all the way down to the neck and then, i would have to liftj things up and suspend them. This is completely elective, so it doesnt have to happen next month or tomorrow. I the nerves are reconnected, but your brain is learning which ones are supposedj to be controlled by what. And trying to differentiate movements, with help of| our speech therapist, will helix you will still be getting better. Theres another year that we know our patients are getting fairly dramatically better. And then, at aboutl two years from the surgery, thats where it plateaus. Robert is a unique man. Hes very spiritual, thoughtful. He really believes in gods plan for him. I yeah. Yeah. Well keep chatting. All right . Hello there. Settled and warm again on friday, with plenty of late spring sunshine around and temperatures rising across the four nations into the low 20s in celsius. The warmth is set to last as we head through the weekend. Temperatures will remain above the seasonal average, warmest towards the east. And its still dry for the vast majority of us on saturday. A scattering of showers, with the real breakdown happening on sunday. Heavy, thundery showers out towards the western half of the uk. Further east should stay largely dry. And here is the area of High Pressure thats keeping these dry, settled conditions for the time being. It will eventually push further eastwards into scandinavia. But weve got a bit of an easterly breeze, and thats been dragging some mist and low cloud in from the north sea. But that will lift and clear across the South East Of England and east anglia through saturday morning. Still maybe a hang back of cloud towards parts of the yorkshire lincolnshire coast, though. Lots of sunshine to start the day and well keep the sunny skies for most through the afternoon. But a scattering of showers across scotland pushing northwards, perhaps some heavy and thundery, but theyll be fairly isolated. Its still very warm 2a degrees celsius in glasgow. Chance of a shower, too, across Northern Areas of Northern Ireland and north wales. A little cooler towards these north sea facing coasts, with some of the cloud possibly lapping onshore again at times. 25 or 26 degrees celsius in london and south east england. So the High Pressure starts to push further eastwards as we head through sunday. That allows for these low Pressure Systems to roll in from the west. And this Weather Front will bring us Thickening Cloud across the south west of england, western wales, on sunday morning. Some showers across the Western Isles and western scotland, pushing into Northern Ireland, and the chance of some thunderstorms developing all across the western half of the uk. But it should stay drier further east. Again, there will be a lot of sunshine here, and once again we could see temperatures in the low to the mid 20s in celsius. But cooler out towards the west, of course, underneath the cloud and with the eventual rain. And here comes that low Pressure System swinging in as we head through monday. Its going to give us quite widespread rain on monday, especially through the afternoon, so expect it to turn a lot more showery as we head through next week. And therell be a drop in temperature, too, so unsettled and cooler as we head through next week. Bye bye for now. Live from washington, this is bbc news. Billions head to the polls around the world this year, as concerns grow about the impact of deceptive Artificial Intelligence on elections. Us officials warn foreign adversaries could use the technology to influence elections, as the deep fakes become more convincing and sophisticated. Hello, im katrina perry. Youre very welcome to this bbc Special Report on the influence of Artificial Intelligence on global elections. More than 60 countries will head to the polls in 2024, and many already have. Half the worlds voting population, about 2 billion people are expected to cast ballots. Artificial intelligence has already begun to play substantial role in elections