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WINSTON-SALEM — Students, faculty and residents of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center got a look at a medical breakthrough that began in their own backyard.

Wednesday, the group heard from the hospital's associate director of the Burn Unit and a visiting plastic surgeon from Brigham and Women's Hospital who were involved in the nation's second full face transplant. Doctors said Mitch Hunter was just 21-years-old in 2001 and a few months out of his two year stint in the army, when Hunter got into a terrible car accident that changed his life.

Doctors said he suffered an electrical burn injury that affected a majority of his face.

"Most of the injury was confined to the center of the face and it was too early to tell exactly how severe things would be. A lot of people that have a 7,200 volt electrical injury never make it to the hospital," said associate director of the burn unit at Wake Forest Baptist Dr. Joseph Molnar.

After months of hospitalization, and about three years of treatment and reconstructive procedures, Hunter was back to his life. Until he returned to the hospital with hopes of a full face transplant. Molnar said he recommended Hunter for a full face transplant at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston and it was there that Dr. Bohdan Pomahac led the nation's second full face transplant on Hunter.

The doctors said more than 30 medical experts worked for around 17 hours to give Hunter a new nose, lips, eyelids, plus the entire facial skin including the muscles underneath. Doctors said they are hoping Hunter's success story will stimulate student's and resident's interest in the possibilities of the medical future.

"Is it something that will be done more broadly in the future? Yes I think so, in time," said Molnar.