Life wasn’t that great for Connie Culp after her husband, Thomas Culp, shot her right in the face, shattering her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. Also, hundreds of fragments from the shot as well as bone splinters were shattered all over her face. Connie Culp survived, though, but it was a tough life she had ever since 2004 when the incident happened. But then, face transplant became an option – you can see the results of the face transplant, as well as a video in this article.

Connie Culp endured 30 operations culminating with a 22-hour long one in which Dr. Maria Siemionow and a team of doctors replaced 80% of Connie’s face, in the fourth face transplant in the world and the first in the US. It was an incredible and impressive operation: bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels had to be placed on Connie Culp’s face, and even though her expression now is a bit wooden and bloated and squarish, it is still much better than before when she couldn’t breathe for herself, nor eat or smell.

Now, five years after the incident, Connie Culp admits that the face transplant changed her life and she is now a different woman: the procedure is still not over, since doctors still plan to remove the extra skin once the body accommodates with the new one and the blood vessels and nerves. But still, it’s impressive. Just check out the images below to see how much this person’s life was changed thanks to this face transplant.

And here is a short video of Connie Culp talking about the face transplant: