I Am Robert Chelsea
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The first African-American to have a face transplant tells his own story - in a documentary about faith, identity and character. Robert suffered horrific burns in a car accident - but survived and went ahead with a series of demanding surgical operations in an attempt to restore his appearance. A shortage of black donors meant it was a long wait for his doctors to find even a partial match for his skin colour. In a moving narrative, Robert, his friends, family and doctors reflect on his remarkable journey. Producer: Ben Davis
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi, I'm Riana Dylan, and this is seriously. |
| 0:45.0 | You're listening to Radio 4 and this is Robert Chelsea. |
| 0:50.0 | I was just a regular normal person before the auto accident. |
| 0:57.0 | In 2019, Robert became the first black man in the world to have a full face transplant. |
| 1:04.3 | A year after the face transplant, it's not a question of accepting the face, |
| 1:11.0 | it's getting used to it. I'm Emilio San Pedro and just a quick |
| 1:15.8 | warning some of the details in Robert's story are quite graphic and it may take |
| 1:20.8 | some listeners a moment or two to tune into Robert's voice but as he tells you himself |
| 1:27.0 | I can't control my lips as well so sometimes my words a lot of times my words just will not come together. |
| 1:35.6 | Robert 70 and from LA. |
| 1:38.6 | If you ask his friends to describe him, words like humble and spiritual come up a lot, two words that maybe don't |
| 1:46.3 | spring to mind when you think of a lifelong salesman. |
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