Able to transplant 80% of the face of a woman in United States

The patient,aged 46, had been disfigured after her husband shot him in the face. Five years and 30 operations later, a medical team was able to reconstruct the nose, jaw, eye and cheek


An instant, just enough that, for the life of Connie Culp changed forever. What seemed to be discussing a couple more, ended when her husband shot him in the face and disfigured. Five years later, thanks to advances in science, women are subjected to more face transplants, in Cleveland, USA, and was back out into the street without being observed.

Intervention-the first of its kind in United States-took place last December at a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. But the case recently was released yesterday when the team doctor who performed the surgery the patient presented and showed impressive results.

Culp (46) had been disfigured in 2004 after arguing with her husband, Thomas. At one point in the fight, the man took a shotgun and shot his wife in the face. Then the man hit a shot. Now he is detained, serving a sentence of seven years in prison.

Connie was able to overcome the attack, but was completely disfigured: shooting it destroyed the nose, cheeks, the upper jaw and an eye. Their situation was so dire that he needed a tube into the trachea to be able to breathe and could not eat solid food or drink from a cup.

Two months later, a plastic surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Risal Djohar, examined the patient. The prognosis was not the most hopeful. I thought that it would not be able to rebuild his face, but nevertheless promised to help her. So it was that the woman was in the hands of a medical team and support thirty surgeries.

The road was hard. In this series of complex operations, the experts took parts of his ribs to rebuild bone implanted cheekbones and one of its legs to create an upper jaw. He also made countless skin grafts obtained from other parts of your body. Each surgery was a step in the long road to recovery, although that might not get to eat solid food, smell or breathe through the nose.

That's when the doctors decided they had to raise the bet. On December 10, 2008, Dr. Maria Siemionow of heart-health-led a team that underwent a face transplant. During the operation, which lasted almost a day, doctors replaced 80 percent of the face of Culp's bones, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels of another woman, a cadaveric donor.

The results of this transplantation-which is the fourth in the world, but the larger-were presented yesterday in Ohio. At the press conference, Culp showed up to his face and smiled again, something that only now can return to. "Here I am, five years later. Djohar did what he said ... I have my nose,''said Culp.

The woman had only praise for the doctors who treated her and thanks to the family of the donor, which allowed "might have the face of this person.''

Yet the expressions of guilt are a little stiff, but again you can smile, smell and taste their food. And, although sometimes hard to understand his words, women are happier because they can speak again. The doctors explained that over time, improvements in mobility of the face will be higher, because the long recovery process still lasts a couple of years.