CLEVELAND, OH – Connie Culp revealed herself to the world yesterday after a 22-hour operation that replaced 80 percent of her face!
Connie Culp, before the shooting
The past five years of Connie Culp’s life have been extremely painful. Upon being shot point blank in the face by her husband, her nose, cheeks, roof of her mouth and an eye were destroyed. She endured 30 operations in an attempt to reconstruct her face, which included taking parts of her ribs and leg bones for facial structure and skin grafts from her thighs.
However, she was still unable to eat solid food, smell or breathe unassisted. She also faced difficulties being seen in public, where people often did not know how to treat her. At a press conference yesterday, Culp described a scene where a child saw her and told his mother, “You said there were no real monsters, Mommy, and there’s one right there.”
But on December 10th, due to the generosity of a donor, she underwent a difficult 22-hour operation to receive bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a woman who had just died. Although having left Cleveland Clinic on February 5th, she did not reveal her new face to the public until yesterday.
Her skin droops because doctors plan to trim it away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow. She also has difficulty speaking for the time being, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again.
Check out her inspirational speech below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp26HIdPyYY&fmt=18]
I SEE CONNIE AS AN EXTREMELY BRAVE PERSON WHO I AM SURE WILL ONLY SEE GREAT THINGS AHEAD IN HER FUTURE. GOD BLESS HER.