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. Sound like fiction?Connie Culp stepped forward Tuesday to show off the results of the nation’s first face transplant, and her new look was a far cry from the puckered, noseless sight that made children run away in horror. Instead, children gawk at the dead woman's face that lies over Connie's old face.
Culp’s expressions are still a bit wooden (as in "you might feel a little pressure), but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. Her speech is at times a little tough to understand - some might say impaired. Her face is bloated and squarish, and her skin droops in big folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating her new muscles. Yes, the re-animator has arrived.
But Culp had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible.
“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. It's a bit strange and will cause confusion among surviving family members, but this is my face now.”
“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. It's a bit strange and will cause confusion among surviving family members, but this is my face now.”
Culp said she wants to help foster acceptance of those who have suffered burns and other disfiguring injuries by demonstrating lack of self-acceptance.
“When somebody has a disfigurement and don’t look as pretty as you do, don’t judge them, because you never know what happened to them,” she said. “Don’t judge people who don’t look the same as you do. Because you never know. One day it might be all taken away. It's inside a person that counts, except for the face. That's where we must draw the line.”
AFTER AND STILL AFTER
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 license to show the child what she used to look like - then pulled him close to her face and whispered, "Feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?"
Culp left the hospital Feb. 5 and has returned for periodic follow-up care. She has suffered only one mild rejection episode that was controlled with a single dose of steroid medicines. She must take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of her life, but her dosage has been greatly reduced and she needs only a few pills a day.
In your face!
“When somebody has a disfigurement and don’t look as pretty as you do, don’t judge them, because you never know what happened to them,” she said. “Don’t judge people who don’t look the same as you do. Because you never know. One day it might be all taken away. It's inside a person that counts, except for the face. That's where we must draw the line.”
AFTER AND STILL AFTER
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 license to show the child what she used to look like - then pulled him close to her face and whispered, "Feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?"Culp left the hospital Feb. 5 and has returned for periodic follow-up care. She has suffered only one mild rejection episode that was controlled with a single dose of steroid medicines. She must take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of her life, but her dosage has been greatly reduced and she needs only a few pills a day.
In your face!
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