The first recipient of a partial facial transplant dies in the United States

Connie Culp, recipient of the first partial face transplant in the United States, died almost 12 years after the historic surgery. She was 57 years old.

The Cleveland Clinic, where he had the operation in 2008, reported Saturday that Culp died Wednesday at the Ohio clinic of complications from a non-transplant infection.

Physician Frank Papay, who chairs the institute of dermatology and plastic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and who was part of the team that operated on Culp, had described her as “an incredibly brave, lively woman, and an inspiration to many.”

“Her strength was evident from the fact that she was the longest-lived facial transplant patient to date,” Papay said in a statement. “She was a great pioneer and her decision to undergo an sometimes challenging procedure constitutes an enduring gift for all of humanity.”

Culp’s husband shot him in the face in 2004 in a failed homicide-suicide attempt for which the assailant was jailed for seven years. The shot destroyed Culp’s face, fractured his cheekbones, and caused him to almost lose his sight. Her face was so disfigured that children ran away from her and called her a monster, The Associated Press reported earlier.

Culp underwent 30 operations in an attempt to fix his face. Doctors removed parts of her ribs to rebuild her cheekbones and parts of her femurs to rebuild her upper jaw. She went through numerous skin grafts taken from her thighs. However, Culp was unable to eat solid food, breathe on her own, or smell.

In December 2008, Dr. Maria Siemionow led a medical team that in a 22-hour surgery, replaced 80% of Culp’s face with bones, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a donor, Anna Kasper. It was the fourth facial transplant in the world, although the others were not as extensive.

After the operation, Culp had slightly stiff facial expressions and his speech was sometimes difficult to understand, but he could speak, smile, smell, and taste food again. In 2011, Siemionow said Culp had “a normal face” after doctors corrected the fallen jowl and extra skin they had purposely left behind to facilitate control biopsies.

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