The 46-year-old mother of two Connie Culp is the first face transplant patient in the United States. The “disfigure” photo (L) is Connie after an injury to her face; the other photo (R) is after she underwent the first face transplant surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in December 2008.

This is an old photo of Connie Culp before the injury to her face.

Her face was shot by her husband Thomas G. “Tom” Culp in a failed murder-suicide in September 2004 outside a bar in Hopedale, Ohio. Both of them survived and Tom was convicted of aggravated attempted murder with a 7-year prison sentence.

After the incident, Connie Culp forgave her husband at the sentencing and said she will be waiting when he gets out of prison. However, on an Oprah show on September 22, 2009, Connie Culp said that she has changed her mind and no longer plans to wait for her former husband after a question from her daughter, she asked, “Mom, what kind of example would you be setting for me if you went back to the man who shot your face off?”

Yes Girl, you are right! Your mom shouldn’t waste her time to wait for a man, who destroyed her face.

[via]