Connie Culp, a 46-year-old mother-of-two, is the recipient of the first U.S. almost-total face transplant that took place last December. Culp was left without the middle section of her face after her husband shot her in 2004. Culp revealed the results of her surgery for the first time before public. The pictures could be hard to view but the story is very compelling! It’s so compelling that I decided to share it with all of you.

more photos of Connie Culp below..

Connie said:

“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,” she said. “Don’t judge people who don’t look the same as you do. Because you never know. One day it might be all taken away.”

5 years ago, Culp’s husband shot her in the face with a rifle. She was left without a nose and she couldn’t breathe on her own or eat regular food. Culp underwent 30 operations to try to fix her face. Doctors took parts of her ribs to make cheekbones and fashioned an upper jaw from one of her leg bones. She had countless skin grafts from her thighs. Still, she was left unable to breathe on her own, eat solid food, or smell under this facial transplant.

The team of 11 surgeons who performed the operation and the surgery lasted 22 hours. Surgeons transplanted about 80 percent of Culp’s face using facial tissue from a dead woman that was placed like a mask atop her own. Almost Culp’s entire face was replaced, except for the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip and chin.

Culp will still need more surgeries and over time and with more care, surgeons predict she would look more like one of the pictures below. Today she can eat regular food, drink without a straw, she can smell and she’s learning to smile.

My readers, just think how blessed we all are. Don’t judge too easily. This is a woman who has no choice but to undergo surgery after surgery. Her life for the past five years is beyond imagination for a lot of us, including myself. I hope we all learn to cherish what we have and be less judgemental towards others.

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