I used to work with Rudy Buntic, and all the Buncke Clinic surgeons at Davies Medical Center (now CPMC) and I know this man will get the very best care there is. They do some amazing stuff there... I helped out while they reattached tongues, scalps, fingers, arms, feet, ears, and a penis too... moved toes to the hand, fingers from one hand to the other, skin and muscles from one part of the body to another part in order to cover extensive wounds with vascularized tissue and save limbs, tissue or reconstruct missing breasts, noses, chins, and more.
I really miss those cases... I loved working 14 or 16 hours, all night, working under the microscope sewing together vessels and nerves... oh the days...
The three most common musculo-cutaneous and muscular free-flap donors sites are:
Latisimuss dorsi
Scapular
Serratus
I'm assuming they would use the Latissimus (for a large area) or Serratus (for a smaller area) since with those you can move skin as well. It would depend on how big the defect is. The free tissue graft, or free flap, would then be attached to the best vein and artery left near the defect site, which might be difficult to find in an infected area such as this... so probably it went to an artery and vein in the neck.
Having good blood supplied tissue to cover these huge defects is key to fighting infection and ultimate survival.
Good luck to Mr. Hamm... he could not be in better hands!
For more info about microsurgery...here
About the Buncke Clinic... here
OMG! There's a picture of me (in the flowered hat) on the Buncke website! Yay!
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