The woman was mutilated by her husband. He tortured her for years and in September 2004 decided to kill her with a shotgun. Connie survived the assassination attempt, but had a shot on her face. She lost her nose, part of the palate under her nose, and her lower eyelids. She could not eat and breathe through a tube in her trachea.
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Over the next four years, she underwent thirty operations, culminating in a challenging 22-hour operation in 2008 when doctors at a Cleveland hospital transplanted her face from a deceased donor. Doctors transferred the skin, muscles, bones, arteries, veins, nerves, and even some of the dead woman’s teeth to her face.
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Doctors described Connie Culp as “an incredibly brave and lively woman.” She was the fourth patient in the world to have a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman, became the first woman in 2005.
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Connie Culp before her husband shot her.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Culp’s husband was sentenced to seven years in prison for her mutilation, and she did not divorce him until 2011.
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