First U.S. face transplant patient revealed

CLEVELAND (WJRT) -- (05/06/09) -- An Ohio woman is showing her face in public - her new face.

Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a ghastly hole where the middle of Connie Culp's face had been.

Today, Culp stepped forward to show off the results of America's first face transplant, performed at the Cleveland Clinic.

Her new look is a far cry from the puckered, noseless sight that made children run away in horror. Culp's expressions are still a bit wooden. But she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. Her speech is at times a little tough to understand. Her face is bloated and squarish, and her skin droops in big folds that doctors plan to surgically remove.

But Culp had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible during a 22-hour operation last December.

Culp's husband, Thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He went to prison for seven years.

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