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#22
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11-29-2010, 06:31 AM
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 So Fucking Banned Poster Rank:308 Male Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 4,168 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 0 Post(s)
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Re: Connie Culp Face Transplant
Fortunately the daughter was a voice of reason. She should have sent a message to all women that women abusers should rot in hell. Is it just me or does she now look like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the movie when he was dressed as a woman to get through airport security? |
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#24
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11-29-2010, 03:59 PM
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| My Rank: LANCE CORPORAL Poster Rank:1850 Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 276 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 9 Post(s)
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Re: Connie Culp Face Transplant
She's goin back to that husband, IMO. When he gets outta prison (and if he wants her back) she'll go back. She says no, but you can tell she's still got that crazy attachment to her abuser. I hope not though. |
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#29
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07-29-2012, 11:53 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:61 Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 25,052
Contributions: 1
Mentioned: 29 Post(s) Quoted: 3459 Post(s)
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Re: Connie Culp Face Transplant
Nice facial reconstruction... However, I think she's a moron for forgiving her ex husband.. Just sayin'
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#30
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04-16-2013, 04:05 PM
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 My Rank: STAFF SERGEANT Poster Rank:839 Male Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 914 Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Quoted: 89 Post(s)
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Re: Connie Culp Face Transplant
Connie met Tom Culp when she was 15, and she ran away with him a year later. "My relationship with Tom wasn't any different than living with my dad. He told me what do to, and I did it. He teased me and called me names. My dad did the same thing, so I just thought it was a normal way of life," she says. After years of being victimized, Connie started to stand up for herself. "He would push me and people would see it, and I would get up and I'd say, 'I'm a good person, and I don't deserve that,'" she says. "He wasn't used to me talking back." On September 21, 2004, Tom shot Connie in a fit of rage. He then turned the gun on himself and shot himself in the side of his face. He survived the blast. After suffering a near-fatal blow, Connie managed to walk downstairs and find her twin sister, Bonnie, who called Connie's daughter, Alicia. "She said, 'He shot her.' I immediately knew that she must have meant my dad shot my mom. I wasn't really even surprised," Alicia says. "I always knew that he could really hurt somebody. I knew he had a potential. I just didn't think it would be my mom." When Connie was first shot, she says she didn't know how extensive the injuries were. "You're actually in shock [when you get shot], and you don't feel anything, " she says. "I could feel the blood and all that, but your adrenaline's going so fast that there was no pain." The shooting literally took off Connie's face. "I lost my sense of smell. I lost my eye, my nose. My jaw they had to wire shut. I didn't lose any teeth during the shooting, but the top of my mouth deteriorated, so I lost my whole top mouth," Connie says. "I could feel my face just sliding down." She became the first person to undergo a near-total face transplant in the United States. The shotgun blast destroyed Culp's nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. She underwent 30 operations prior to the face transplant on December 10, 2008. Surgeon Maria Siemionow led a team of doctors in a 22-hour operation which replaced 80 percent of Culp's face with the face from another woman who had recently died. She is legally blind, but says she make out shadows. Despite her new physical attributes, Connie says she feels like her old self. "I just have to retrain my muscles all over again," she says. "I have to exercise them every day just like doing push-ups or sit-ups every day." Her nose was rebuilt and some of the disfigurement repaired in the operation. The Associated Press reported that Culp was able to breathe on her own and eat solid food following the transplant, adding "Ms. Culp's expressions are still a bit wooden, and she remains almost blind (right eye is prosthetic, left eye is damaged), but she can talk, smile, smell and taste food again, and has learned braille. Her speech is at times difficult to understand. Her face is bloated and squarish, and her skin droops in folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating new muscles." She now works as an advocate fostering understanding for victims of burns or other disfigurements. Connie's husband also survived and was convicted in 2005 of aggravated attempted murder with a 7-year prison sentence. Despite everything she's been through, Connie says she has considered going back to Tom. "He really needs somebody to talk to, he does. He needs help; he's got a temper," she says. "I just thought, 'He doesn't trust anyone.' I was the only one he trusted." For years, Connie tried to make excuses for Tom, claiming the shooting was an accident. But on September 22, 2009, Culp said on an episode of Oprah that she no longer plans to wait for her former husband. Connie says Alicia helped her realize she could never be with Tom again. "[I asked her], 'What kind of example would you set for me if you went back to the man that shot you?'" Alicia says. The truth clicked for Connie when she heard her daughter's words. "Do I want her to live through what I went through? The ups and downs? Because everybody thinks it's going to get better. It's not going to get better unless they get help," she says.  ·  ·  ·  ·  · |
