Soon after surgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital listed their first patient in an organ donation database as in need of a face transplant, Dr. Bohdan Pomahac visited Dr. Joseph E. Murray at his home in Wellesley.

Pomahac, who was preparing to lead a team in the hospital’s first partial face transplant and would go on to do the first full face transplant performed in the United States, was anxious. Had he considered every variable? Had they done enough to ensure the surgery would go well?