GQ magazine cover to feature Richard Lee Norris, recipient of a full face transplant
TWO years after becoming the recipient of the most extensive face transplant ever performed, Richard Lee Norris has become the ‘face’ of GQ. See the amazing tranformation.
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TWO years after becoming the recipient of the most extensive face transplant ever performed, Richard Lee Norris has become the ‘face’ of the latest edition of GQ magazine.
The 39-year-old Virginia resident had lived as a recluse since he suffered a gunshot blast to the face during a drunken incident in 1997.
For 15 years he kept indoors and wore ski masks when he had to venutre outdoors, before undergoing the most extensive facial transplant ever attempted.
After the 36-hour operation in 2012 at the University of Maryland Medical Center, lead surgeon Dr Eduardo Rodriguez said it was a “surreal experience” to look at Mr Norris.
“It’s hard not to stare. Before, people used to stare at Richard because he wore a mask and they wanted to see the deformity,” he said.
“Now, they have another reason to stare at him, and it’s really amazing.”
HOW THEY DID IT: The 36-hour-operation to give a man his face back
Priort to the operation, Mr Norris had no teeth, no nose and only part of his tongue. He was still able to taste but could not smell.
Because of numerous reconstructive surgeries, his forehead and neck were mostly scar tissue.
The operation was the most extensive ever done because it included transplantation of the teeth, upper and lower jaw, a portion of the tongue and all facial tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck, Dr Rodriguez said.
It was the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure. The first full face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who was mauled by her dog.
The Cleveland Clinic performed the first face transplant in the US in 2008.
The US Defence Department has been funding some face and hand surgeries with the goal of helping wounded soldiers.
Mr Norris will have to take immunosuppression drugs for the rest of his life to keep his body from rejecting the donated face.
The circumstances of his injury were initially kept fairly circumspect, but the Daily Mail revealed that the then 22-year-old shot himself in the face during a drunken argument with his mother in which he declared he wanted to kill himself.
PREVIOUSLY: Facial transplant recipient seeks damages after chimp attack
The name of Mr Norris’s donor has also been identified for the first time as a 21-year-old man, Joshua Aversano, who died after being hit by a minivan.
In next month’s edition of GQ, Mr Norris said he knows he will spend the rest of his life in and out of hospital - the threat of rejection is ever-present - but he is happy to be a “lab rat”.
“A drop of hope can create an ocean, but a bucket of faith can create an entire world,’ GQ quoted Mr Norris as saying.
Originally published as GQ magazine cover to feature Richard Lee Norris, recipient of a full face transplant