An Ohio woman who received America’s first near-total face transplant in the Cleveland Clinic appeared before the media for the first time.
A team of Cleveland Clinic doctors replaced 80 percent of a woman’s face in what is considered the world’s first nearly complete facial transplant.
Connie Culp, a 46-year-old mother-of-two was left without the middle section of her face after her husband shot her in 2004. Ms Culp, whose identity had been previously withheld, paid tribute to the donor family at a news conference, reported by BBC.
“Here I am, five years later,” Culp told the reporters in her first public appearance on Tuesday. She expressed her gratitude to the donor and her family, adding that she is now able to talk, smile, smell and taste her food again.
Doctors hope to perform another surgery to animate her muscles as soon as her circulation improves and her nerves regenerate.
Source: BBC News, UK