“At that point, I smelled gunpowder because it was, obviously, indoors, and you can smell it,” her brother Robert added. “And I knew exactly at that point what had happened.”
Katie had shot herself in the face. Family and first responders initially feared the worst: that Kate was gone, or at the very least beyond saving. As it turned out, however, hope remained. Katie still had a pulse and, miraculously, she could still speak. The girl was rushed to the emergency room.
“I had no clue what a face transplant was”
Katie had lost parts of her forehead, nose, sinuses, and most of her mouth except the corners of her lips. The bones that made up the jaw and front of her face were also gone. Her eyes remained, though they were severely damaged.
Doctors didn’t know if Katie would make it, but began reconstructing her disfigured face. During the first night of her hospital stay, medical professionals told Katie’s family that her best chance of living something close to a normal life was a face transplant.
“He said, ‘This is the worst wound I’ve ever seen, and I think the only thing that will give her any kind of life again will be a face transplant,’” Stubblefield said. “That was the first time we’d ever heard that term.”Continue reading…
