Katie Stubblefield becomes youngest in US to receive face transplant

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A 21-year-old woman who shot herself in the face in a failed suicide bid has become the youngest person in the US to receive a face transplant.

Katie Stubblefield says she doesn’t remember much about the day in March 2014 when she shot herself with a .308-caliber hunting rifle in a bathroom of her Mississippi home.

The then-18-year-old had just found out her boyfriend had been texting another girl, and also recently undergone surgery for gastrointestinal problems, according to the National Geographic, which chronicles Stubblefield’s story in its latest edition.

Stubblefield’s older brother, Robert, was the one who found her — covered in blood.

“Her face is gone,” he recalled thinking at the time.

The young woman survived but was critically injured, having lost her forehead, nose and sinuses, mouth except for the corners of her lips and much of the bones that make up the jaws and front of her face. Her eyes remained, but they were askew and badly damaged.

“I had never thought of doing that before,” Stubblefield said of her attempt to kill herself. Afterward, “I felt so guilty that I had put my family through such pain. I felt horrible.”

A surgeon eventually suggested the family consider a face transplant — a procedure they’d never heard of.

“I had no clue what a face transplant was,” Stubblefield told CNN. “When my parents helped explain everything to me, I was very excited to get a face again and to have function again.”

National Geographic followed Stubblefield during her three-year journey to receive the rare 31-hour transplant, and she is featured on their September cover, released Tuesday, in a feature titled “The Story of a Face.”

Stubblefield was on the transplant list for over a year before a donor was found: Andrea Schneider, a 31-year-old woman and organ donor who had recently passed away, was a match. Schneider’s grandmother, Sandra Bennington, made the decision to donate Andrea’s face.

The surgery was performed at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio in May and paid for by the US Department of Defense through the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Her transplant was the clinic’s third face transplant and the 40th known in the world. The world’s fist successful face transplant was conducted at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Spain in 2010.

Before Stubblefield’s transplant, surgeons used 3D printing to help reconstruct about 90 percent of her lower jaw, using her older sister, Olivia McCay, as a model template, said Dr. Brian Gastman a plastic surgeon at Cleveland Clinic who led the surgery.

The transplant, which was performed by 11 surgeons, aimed to restore Stubblefield’s face and functions such as chewing, breathing and swallowing.

“I am able to touch my face now, and it feels amazing,” said Stubblefield, who still has some difficulty speaking clearly.

“I’m definitely taking many, many daily steps,” she added about the recovery process.

Stubblefield plans on attending online college soon to pursue a career in counseling and motivational speaking, specifically to raise awareness about suicide and suicide prevention.

“So many people have helped me. Now I want to help other people” she said.

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