Connie Culp’s Face Transplant: An Inspiration

Eighty percent of her face was replaced

There are times when emergency surgery is necessary. It could be that it’s the only thing that keeps you alive after a traumatic incident. Sometimes it might not be a requirement in order to live, but it could mean a dramatically increased quality of life. Whatever the case, such surgeries are almost prohibitively expensive.  If your insurance doesn’t cover it, or only covers up to a certain point, you may find yourself in a financial dilemma. Do you pay your other bills until your next paycheck comes in, or do you try online cash advance and installment loans? The former exposes your credit rating to damage, while the latter greatly improves your quality of life, at least financially. But for Connie Culp, a face transplant improved her entire quality of life. Hers is the first face transplant of this degree (80 percent), and she is showing the world that she is strong enough to rise above the domestic tragedy that once engulfed her.

“Not a monster”

Marilynn Marchione reports for the Associated Press that Connie Culp has recovered admirably from a shotgun blast that completely disfigured her face. Expressions aren’t completely natural yet as circulation and nerve growth improve, but Culp can talk, smile, smell and taste again. Her speech may sometimes hard to decipher, her skin may droop as face transplant pictures show, but Connie Culp has nothing but praise for her doctors and the donor family who made a new face available after a recent death.

Beyond horror

Culp’s husband, Thomas, fired a shotgun into her face in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He survived and went to prison for seven years. Connie Culp’s nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye were destroyed. Only the upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left. Hundreds of buckshot and bone fragments were embedded in her face. She required a tracheotomy in order to breathe. Thirty operations later, Connie Culp was on the road to a better face, but there were still difficulties. Despite having parts of her ribs taken to make cheekbones, leg bones used to construct an upper jaw and numerous skin grafts, Culp still couldn’t eat solid food, breathe without aid or smell.

Then, the face transplant

A 22-hour face transplant operation in Cleveland, Ohio by Dr. Maria Siemionow and her team of doctors replaced most of Connie Culp’s face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a recently deceased donor. It was much more extensive than the face transplant on Isabelle Dinoire, the world’s first. At this writing, no information has been released about the face transplant donor or how she died, but it is known that the family of the donor woman were “moved” once they saw the before and after shots of Connie Culp, said Dr. Siemionow. Since the face transplant was an experimental surgery, the Cleveland clinic expects to absorb the cost. according to doctors. Siemionow estimated the cost at $250,000 to $300,000. Astonishingly, that’s less than the $1 million other surgeons estimate it costs to treat severely disfigured people through dozens of operations, she said.

On being a role model

Connie Culp has said she wants to use her face transplant as a springboard to motivate those who have suffered burns and disfiguring injuries – and to help bring about acceptance of their appearance in society. “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.” Related Video: