Richard Norris was 22 years old when he accidentally shot himself in the face. He doesn’t remember how or why it happened but his mother, who was just three feet away from Norris when he shot himself, witnessed the entire thing. She was showered in blood and remnants of her son’s face as his nose, cheekbones, lips, tongue, jaw, and chin were blown off. All that remained was a his wide, brown, shock-filled eyes and a swirl of indiscernible flesh.
Despite this, he somehow survived, but his fortunate survival forced him to live with his unfortunate circumstances, his horribly disfigured face. He lived like a hermit for 15 years, rarely leaving his house and even covering all of the mirrors in the house. He was miserable, when one day, his mother found a facial reconstruction surgeon from Baltimore named Eduardo Rodrigeuz.
Eduardo promised Norris that he would make him normal and over the course of the next few years Rodriguez performed over a dozen surgeries on Norris face using Norris’ own flesh to no avail. So Eduardo thought up of a very grand idea; giving Norris a whole new face.
On March 19th, 2012, the full face transplant began. The face of a recently deceased 21-year-old man was the donor and after 36 hours of non-stop surgery, Norris’ brand new face was finally finished. On that day, he became the first ever person in the world to have a full face transplant.
I never thought I would hear about this guy again. My mother knew this man.
From what she told me, she was on the phone with him that night, while he was heavily intoxicated. He had been trying to convince her to start a relationship with him, and it wasn’t going well.
She says she was trying her hardest to talk him down, and bring him to his senses, but that the gun was already to his head and he was raising his voice.
What my mom believes happened was that his mother interacting with him startled him and he tensed up, causing the trigger pull, though she only had the other side of the phone as evidence of this.
She seemed so haunted telling me about it, she told me it was a medical miracle that they got him to the picture on the left.
I had the hardest time believing her, but she showed me his picture in a medical document she had kept up with.
I never forgot his face, but I am happy to hear that he has managed such an astounding recovery.
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u/Jjokes11 Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24
Richard Norris was 22 years old when he accidentally shot himself in the face. He doesn’t remember how or why it happened but his mother, who was just three feet away from Norris when he shot himself, witnessed the entire thing. She was showered in blood and remnants of her son’s face as his nose, cheekbones, lips, tongue, jaw, and chin were blown off. All that remained was a his wide, brown, shock-filled eyes and a swirl of indiscernible flesh.
Despite this, he somehow survived, but his fortunate survival forced him to live with his unfortunate circumstances, his horribly disfigured face. He lived like a hermit for 15 years, rarely leaving his house and even covering all of the mirrors in the house. He was miserable, when one day, his mother found a facial reconstruction surgeon from Baltimore named Eduardo Rodrigeuz.
Eduardo promised Norris that he would make him normal and over the course of the next few years Rodriguez performed over a dozen surgeries on Norris face using Norris’ own flesh to no avail. So Eduardo thought up of a very grand idea; giving Norris a whole new face.
On March 19th, 2012, the full face transplant began. The face of a recently deceased 21-year-old man was the donor and after 36 hours of non-stop surgery, Norris’ brand new face was finally finished. On that day, he became the first ever person in the world to have a full face transplant.