This scenario played out on Monday night's episode of "The Good Doctor." Surgeon Shaun Murphy was able to reconstruct the patient's face using other parts of his body.
In the episode, they used part of the patient's chest muscle and part of the bone in his lower leg. The procedure is inspired by real life operations used for patients with oral cancer.
"This kind of facial reconstruction now is occurring with the use of 3-D printers and holograms in the OR," said Dr. Jen Ashton, ABC's Chief Medical Editor. "A lot of pre-operative planning goes into this, and the results can be pretty impressive."
You can watch "The Good Doctor" every Monday at 10 p.m. on ABC.
----------
* Follow us on YouTube
* More local news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts