Health

First U.S. Face Transplant

AP Photo/Amy Sancetta
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO
AP Photo/Amy Sancetta
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO
AP Photo/Amy Sancetta
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO
AP Photo/Cleveland Clinic-HO

Connie Culp, who underwent the first face transplant surgery in the U.S. in December 2008, speaks to the media at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. The 46-year-old mother of two lost most of the midsection of her face to a gunshot in 2004. The initial surgery by the Cleveland Clinic team took place in December 2008.
This is a CT scan photo, supplied by Cleveland Clinic, of Connie Culp, after an injury to her face led her to become the first face transplant patient in the United States, left, and after the surgery, right.
In 2004, Culp's husband, Thomas, shot her before turning 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.
Dr. Maria Siemionow explains the face transplant surgery she and her team performed in December 2008 on Connie Culp, at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.
This undated photo of Connie Culp, before the injury to her face would lead her to become the first face transplant patient in the United States.
Connie Culp, second from left, who underwent the first face transplant surgery in the U.S., is helped to the podium by her head surgeon, Dr. Maria Siemionow, right, as well as Renee Bennett, the nurse manager for the Clinic's transplant program, far left, and Pat Lock, a nurse with the transplant team, third from left, before speaking to the media at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.
Culp endured 30 operations to try to fix her face. Doctors took parts of her ribs to make cheekbones and fashioned an upper jaw from one of her leg bones. She had countless skin grafts from her thighs. Still, she was left unable to eat solid food, breathe on her own, or smell leading her to become the first face transplant recipient in the U.S.
On December 10,2008, in a 22-hour operation, Dr. Maria Siemionow led a team of doctors who replaced 80 percent of Culp's face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from another woman who had just died. It was the fourth face transplant in the world, though the others were not as extensive.
This is a photo of Connie Culp, after an injury to her face, left, and then as she appears today. 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, her doctors said. 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.