THE MOST EXTENSIVE FACE TRANSPLANT EVER PERFORMED

37-year-old Richard Lee Norris, was injured in 1997 when he accidentally shot himself with a gun in the face. The accident left him terribly disfigured and for 15 years, he lived as a recluse in Hillsville, Virginia, hiding behind a mask and only coming out at night. Richard lost his nose, lips and most movement in his mouth in the accident. 

But now, after a 36-hour surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center, U.S, he can now feel his face and is able to brush his teeth and shave. He has also regained his sense of smell, which he had lost after the accident. He was  given the most extensive face transplant ever performed. 

Prior to this life-changing surgery, he has had multiple life-saving, reconstructive surgeries which also replaced underlying nerve and muscle tissue from scalp to neck. To ensure that he would retain maximum function of his facial expressions and movements, doctors gave him a new tongue for proper speech, eating, and chewing, normally aligned teeth, and connected his nerves to allow for smiling. 

Amazing, truly amazing. See his picture taken seven months after and the team of Surgeons who performed the surgery after the cut...

The operation by Dr Rodriguez and his team took 36 hours