Daily News Channel
Doctors chose a woman who survived a shotgun wound to her face as the first recipient of a face transplant after treating her for nearly four years. Connie Culp knew of the Cleveland Clinic’s interest in face transplants and approached the medical staff, doctors said at a news conference Tuesday. Dr.
In 2004, a bullet ripped away Connie Culp’s nose, cheeks and upper jaw.
The woman who received the first-ever near-total face transplant in the United States told her doctor she has regained her self-confidence, said Dr. Maria Siemionow, head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic and leader of the transplant team. The patient, who prefers to be anonymous, is finally able to breathe through her nose, smell, eat solid foods and drink out of a cup, Siemionow told participants of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago over the weekend.