By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – A Fort Worth construction worker disfigured in a 2008 power line accident has received the nation's first full face transplant.
Staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston did the 15-hour operation last week on Dallas Wiens. He's listed in good condition today. The donor's identity wasn't disclosed.
The accident left Wiens blind and without lips, a nose or eyebrows.
The new federal health care law helped make the operation possible. Wiens had no insurance when he was hurt. Medicaid covered about two dozen surgeries until his disability payments put him over income limit.
The new law allowed him to get coverage under his father's plan.
Wiens, when he turns 26 in May, will be eligible for Medicare, which covers the disabled.
AT&T: T-Mobile 3G phones will need to be replaced
AT&T says that if its deal to buy T-Mobile USA goes through, T-Mobile subscribers with "3G" phones will need to replace those to keep their wireless broadband service working.
AT&T Inc. on Sunday said it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. If approved by regulators, the deal would close about a year from now.
AT&T said Monday that it in the year after the closing, it plans to rearrange how T-Mobile's cell towers work. The spectrum they use for third-generation services, or 3G, will be repurposed for 4G, which is faster.
That would leave current T-Mobile phones without 3G. They would need to be replaced with phones that use AT&T's 3G frequencies. AT&T said it had factored the cost of replacement phones into the total cost of the acquisition.
Arlington fire, 2 dead in homicide investigation
An apartment fire in Arlington has led to an investigation into the suspicious deaths of a woman and her infant son.
Arlington police early Monday said the deaths are being treated as homicides. Names of the victims were not immediately released.
A police statement says the fire was reported around 10:15 p.m. Sunday. A woman pulled from the residence later died. Her baby was found dead in the home.
Police initially said the baby was a girl, but spokeswoman Tiara Ellis Richard later Monday updated information on the victims to say the infant that died was a boy.
Autopsies have been ordered.
Woman charged in Texas day care fire returns to US
Authorities say a woman accused of fleeing the country after a fire at her Texas day care facility killed four children has returned to the U.S. following her capture in Nigeria.
The U.S. Marshals Service said 22-year-old Jessica Tata landed in Atlanta early Monday morning on a flight from Lagos, Nigeria.
Authorities say Interpol and U.S. State Department agents took Tata into custody Saturday in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The marshals service said in a statement that agents had been working leads since Friday.
Officials believe Tata fled to Nigeria two days after the Feb. 24 fire that also injured three other children. Tata is accused of leaving the children alone while she shopped at a nearby store. She faces multiple charges including manslaughter.
Court-appointed lawyer denied for torture suspect
A judge has denied a court-appointed attorney for a Texas man accused of torturing a woman for two weeks on a device used for skinning deer.
The judge said Monday during Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's initial court appearance that the 58-year-old wasn't indigent because he had listed his net worth as about $200,000.
Maxwell told state District Judge Trey Loftin that he didn't have access to most of his assets and hadn't contacted an attorney. Loftin urged Maxwell to hire one.
Maxwell remains jailed in Parker County on aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges.
Authorities say he abducted his former neighbor from her Parker County home and drove some 100 miles to his Corsicana house. He was arrested there March 12 and the woman was rescued.