Face Transplant Unveiled After Shotgun Blast
“I guess I’m the one you came to see today,” said the 46-year-old in a Cleveland hospital, which is where Culp underwent many life-saving operations. “While I know you all want to focus on me, I think it’s more important that you focus on the donor family,” she added.
Culp’s husband Thomas shot her straight in the middle of her face with a rifle before turning the weapon on himself – both only barely managed to survive. While Thomas went to prison, his wife fought for her life in hospital. The gunshot had ruined her nose, cheeks, mouth and a part of her right eye. Hundreds of little bone fragments and munition shrapnel made up her central facial area after the incident. Breathing alone proved to be an endlessly difficult task. Only the eyelids, her forehead, her lower lip and her chin remained unaffected.
