World's most extensive face transplant for $300,000 renders new life plus new look

World's most extensive face transplant for $300,000 renders new life plus new look

Connie Culp used to be a gorgeous young woman who had her face horribly disfigured five years back when her husband blasted her in the face with a shotgun. The once beautiful face was so unrecognizable that Connie hid away from the world as she was terrified of what people might think of her. She went through 30 operations to fix her face but in vain. When her husband Thomas Culp shot her in the face from eight feet away it shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye, leaving a gaping hole. This is the horror she had to face. Recently however, this mother of two kids got a shot at a new life with the the world's most extensive face transplant for $302,000.
She has come forward publicly to show the world the new Connie. She has also expressed deep gratitude towards the donor family. She said, While I know you all want to focus on me, I think it's more important you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this Christmas present.' Her psychiatrist Dr Kathy Coffman-said: 'Once while shopping she heard a little kid say, "You said there were no real monsters, Mommy, and there's one right there. Culp stopped and said, "I'm not a monster. I'm a person who was shot," and pulled out her driver's licence to show the child what she used to look like.'

All this has changed now as five months ago in a 22 hour operation surgeons transplanted 80 percent of Mrs Culp's face using facial tissue from a donor that was placed on her own like a mask. Except for her forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip and chin, the entire face was replaced. The Cleveland Clinic might be able to absorb the expensive costs of this transplant.

[Dailymail]

by kim, on May 7, 2009 - 10:12 AM in Other Stuff | Comments () -