Another face transplant has been performed in France. A team of French surgeons, headed by Professor Laurent Lantieri, have given Pascal Coler, a modern-day Elephant Man, a new chance to live a normal life. His face had been heavily disfigured since childhood by a rare genetic disorder.

Called Von Recklinghausen's disease, the disorder makes large tumors grow on a patients' face which engulf his eyes, nose, and mouth with boil-encrusted, ulcerated skin. It is the same disease which disfigured Elephant Man Joseph Merrick a century ago, famously played by John Hurt in the hit movie.

Coler does not look like his donor, because his face is shaped by his underlying tissue which remained the same. Instead, he looks like he would normally have if not for the disease.

"At first we were quite frightened to do the transplant," said surgeon Lantieri to ABC. "We didn't know how the patient would tolerate the fact to have a new face."

Instead, Coler was very happy with the outcome. "The operation revolutionized my life," Coler said to ABC. "People no longer stop and stare at me in the street. They don't make fun of me anymore."

Cutting-edge surgeries like this are still not performed in the United States, but they will be soon. Earlier this month, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston was given permission by the New England Organ Bank to be the first facility in the United States to perform partial face transplants on eligible patients whose faces have been disfigured.

To be eligible, recipients will have to be kidney transplant patients who have suffered facial burns, trauma, or skin cancer that has left them with severe facial disfigurement. Also, recipients will have to follow a powerful treatment before the transplant. This treatment will prevent their immune system from rejecting the donor’s tissue, which could expose the patient to infections and cancer.

French surgeon Dr. Jean-Michel Dubenard performed the first procedure of this kind in 2005, on a woman who was severely mauled by her dog. He transferred the muscle tissue of an organ donor the woman, giving her a new chin, nose and lips. The woman is currently having a new life being able to speak, eat, and drink.