First U.S. Face Transplant Patient Appears Before Cameras
Connie Culp, 46, Said She Is Grateful for the Ways the Surgery Changed Her Life
By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit
May 5, 2009
The United States' first-ever face transplant patient today publicly thanked the doctors who performed her surgery after a devastating 2004 shooting incident left her disfigured and unable to eat or breathe on her own.
Connie Culp, 46, of Ohio, the country's first-ever face transplant patient underwent 23 hours of surgery five months ago. She appeared before cameras Tuesday during press conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where surgeons performed the procedure.
(Courtesy Cleveland Clinic)
"Well, I guess I'm the one you came to see today," 46-year-old Connie Culp of Ohio said today at a press conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where a team of surgeons performed the surgery five months ago. "While I know you all want to focus on me, I think it's more important you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this Christmas present, I guess I should say."
The 23-hour surgery, which took place over two days in December 2008, garnered widespread media attention shortly after it was completed. The operation was the world's fourth foray into face transplantation surgery. Culp's identity was not released at the time of the surgery, but today she introduced herself to reporters by first name.
Currently, doctors are waiting to see how much function Culp will regain as the nerves in the graft continue to regenerate.
"We have to wait a little bit," said Dr. Maria Siemionow, the Cleveland Clinic surgeon who led the team that performed the operation. "It is a major reconstruction ... over the next six to 12 months we will see the animation coming back to her face, but even as she is right now she's just one of us."
"She has nose, she has eyelids, she has lips ... what else {could} you want?"
Culp required the surgery due to the injuries she sustained when she was shot in the face in 2004. The episode left her unable to eat, smell, or taste, according to a statement from the Cleveland Clinic. Culp was also unable to breathe without a tracheotomy.
"I just want to say 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. I was shot," Culp said.
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