05 May 2009

Connie Culp, a brave young woman



CLEVELAND – Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a ghastly hole where the middle of her face had been. Five months ago, she received a new face from a dead woman. Connie Culp stepped forward Tuesday to show off the results of the nation's first face transplant…

Culp's husband, Thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He went to prison for seven years. His wife was left clinging to life. The blast shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. Hundreds of fragments of shotgun pellet and bone splinters were embedded in her face. She needed a tube into her windpipe to breathe. Only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left…

"I guess I'm the one you came to see today," the 46-year-old Ohio woman said at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. But "I think it's more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person's face."
More at the link. One can't help but be reminded of two other brave women - Chantal Sebire and Jacqueline Saburido.

3 comments:

  1. I can't help it, but she looks like Candy Crowley LOL. Are they gonna work on her bone structure some more I guess? The face itself looks like it's in great shape.

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  2. Connie is an amazingly brave young woman who has survived the unthinkable. I very much admire her spirit and will to survive this terrifying situation.

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  3. Her husband got SEVEN years? Are ya kiddin me?

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