The amazing story of Katie Stubblefield: She became the youngest person to receive a face transplant

Katie doesn’t remember anything from the day she lost her face. In fact, she said she doesn’t remember much at all from that entire year. Like her family members, though, she was stunned by the fact that it was possible to get a face transplant.

“I had no clue what a face transplant was,” Katie said. “When my parents helped explain everything to me, I was very excited to get a face again and to have function again.”

“I felt so guilty”

Her parents had to tell her what had happened, leaving Katie shocked.

“I never thought of doing that ever before, and so on hearing about it, I just didn’t know how to handle it,” she recalled. “I felt so guilty that I had put my family through such pain, I felt horrible.”

Katie was hospitalized in Oxford, Mississippi, and then flown to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Her recovery would take plenty of time, and she was placed on a waiting list for a donor.Continue reading…