(5 May 2009) HEADLINE: U.S. face transplant appears for first time
CAPTION: Connie Culp stepped forward Tuesday to show off the results of the nation's first face transplant. Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a hole where the middle of her face had been. Five months ago, she received a new face from a dead woman. (May 5)
[Notes:ANCHOR VOICE]
The country's first-ever face transplant patient stepped out before cameras on Tuesday to share her new look ...
[Notes:SOT Connie Culp, face transplant recipient: "Well, I guess I'm the one you came to see today,"]
A team of surgeons from the Cleveland Clinic performed the ground-breaking surgery on 46-year-old Connie Culp last December.
But up until Tuesday ... Culp's identity ... along with how she became severely disfigured ... Remained a secret.
[Notes:SOT Culp: "I was shot. I don't know if everyone knows that, but I was shot."]
Culp's husband was the gunman ...
This is how she looked before he shot her in the face five years ago.
The blast shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye.
[Notes:SOT Dr. Maria Siemionow/ Microsurgeon, Cleveland Clinic: " You can see the tremendous impact of the gunshot on her face. She lost all the functions and also she lost all the bones and you can see a mix of metal and her bones."]
Culp underwent 30 operations as doctors tried to fix her face.
Then last December, in an operation that lasted 22 hours, doctors replaced 80 percent of Culp's face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from another woman who had died just hours earlier.
[Notes:SOT Dr. Maria Siemionow/ Microsurgeon, Cleveland Clinic: "She was called names ... and children were afraid of her. It's a very emotional moment for me to show for the first time her picture after transplantation."]
Doctor's say it would **not** have been possible to restore Culp's face through conventional reconstructive surgery.
[Notes:SOTDr. Eric Kodish/ Bioethicist, Cleveland Clinic: "Even though face transplant was the surgical procedure of the last resort.. it does work and successfully restored to her much of her function."]
It' was the fourth face transplant in the world ... But it was the most extensive.
And doctor's say Culp can now breath on her own ... Has regained her sense of smell ... and can eat solid food.
[Notes:SOT Doctor "She can now enjoy her food. She enjoys her pizzas and hamburgers and can drink coffee from the cup."]
No information has been released about the donor or how she died...
But Culp made sure to thank the family ...
[Notes:SOT Culp: "While I know you all want to focus on me I think it's more important that you focus on the family that I could have this Christmas present I guess I should say."]
Doctors say the donor's family members were moved when they saw the before ... And the after photos of Culp.
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