First US Facial Transplant Patient Thanks Donor Family and Doctors

The first U.S. patient to get a face transplant , Connie Culp, appeared in a news conference yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday May 5th, 2009. Connie received the initial face transplant procedure in December of 2008 and she already looks beautiful now for what she has been through.

Connie, who is just 46 years old, was shot in the face back in 2004 by her husband, Thomas. He then turned the gun on himself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. He is serving a seven year sentence for the crime.

At the news conference Connie was joined by her transplant surgery team of eight doctors that performed the miracle facial transplant surgery. The tragic event that occurred with Connie resulted in her having no nose, no upper jaw nor her lower eyelids. She was unable to breath unassisted, she couldn't eat anything solid. She was left essentially housebound as when she would go out she was cruelly shunned and teased.

But that has all changed now because of the facial transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. She now has a full face, she can eat and drink, she can breathe normally on her own. According to Maria Siemionow , Leader of the Surgical Team and Director of Plastic-Surgery Research at the Cleveland Clinic, "We think this...procedure has changed her life dramatically,"

Ms. Culp discussed at the news briefing her deep thanks to the doctors and nurses who have given her this miraculous gift and she thanked the donor family that allowed the facial tissue to be donated.

As of this writing there are 102,025 people in the United States that are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) . UNOS's mission is to help in the making sure that the precious organs that are donated are placed in the most equitable way possible to save as many lives as possible.

My husband, Tim, and I waited for six years on the Liver Transplant List for a live-saving transplant. My husband had Primary Schlerosing Coalingitis (PSC) and there was no cure other than a transplant. The doctors had predicted back in August 2003 that Tim had weeks to live if he did not get a transplant.

We were amongst the very lucky and blessed few, they found an organ for Tim and events put us in the right place in order to be able to save Tim's life. But not a day goes by that we do not thank the amazing doctors that perform these procedures and especially the courage of the donor family to give the gift of life.

We know every day that we have a responsibility to take care of this amazing gift that we were lucky enough to be given. A family out there had to lose a loved one, in a possibly tragic way, and during their grief they had the strength to make the decision to donate the organs. I will never be able to thank them enough for what they did. My husband has now played with our three year old grand daughter and he has seen our youngest son graduate from high-school. We understand the gratitude that Ms. Culp is speaking of for her transplant.

It was further stated that she decided to go public with this because she is now ready to go home and they were worried about the media bombarding her. Ms. Culp also wanted to urge tolerance by others when they are tempted to show prejudice against others based on how they look.

Sources:

"Face Transplant Patient Emerges", May 5th, www.online.wsj.com

"First U.S. Face Transplant Patient Appears To Thank Doctors", May 5th, www.chatterbox.com

United Netowrk For Organ Sharing, www.unos.org