21 year old girl turns youngest to receive face transplant

A 21-year-old woman who attempted  suicide by shooting herself in the face became the youngest person in the United States to receive a face transplant.

The 31-hour-surgery gave Katie Stubblefield a new face after a year wait for a donor, where they availed organ of 31-year-old slain Andrea Schneider, after the family of the donor decided to help.

 Ms. Stubblefield was given ninety per cent resemblance of her elder sister’s lower jaw  via 3D printing.

Prior to this life-changing surgery, Ms. Stubblefield’s story was told in a National Geographic documentary and made it as their magazine’s September cover story, titled Story of a Face.

Ms Stubblefield’s has a very blurry memory of the day she walked into the suicide attempt in her elder brother’s bathroom in Mississippi, back in 2014— or even the months that followed.

She was rushed to a local hospital to the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, where doctors tried to save her life. Her brother remembers the first thought that crossed his mind when he saw her at the time, “her face is gone”.

Later in 2016, she was declared stable, and a year later she received the surgery that redefined her bone structure, including her nose, nasal passage, and her jaw and regained her ability to chew, swallow, or breathe on her own.

The interview reveals that she had seen texts on her boyfriend's phone from another girl leading to a breakdown of their relationship, where prior to the incident, they had been together through several health problems relating to gastrointestinal issues that Stubblefield faced  prior to the incident.

Ms. Stubblefield plans to attend online college to pursue a career in counseling and motivational speaking to raise awareness about suicide and its prevention.

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