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Woman reveals her new face. Face transplant patient reflects on life. Story highlights Katie Stubblefield tried to kill herself with a gun at 18; now, she is the youngest face transplant recipient in US history "I am able to touch my face now, and it feels amazing," Katie says She is featured on the cover of National Geographic's September issue. Her vision is greatly impaired due to her injury, but touching her face allowed her to feel what her doctors were working around the clock to treat. She could feel where her face was swollen.

She could feel the portions that were missing.

Kaepernick's face could be used for a variety of merchandise and events

That was before Katie, at 21, became the youngest person in the United States to receive a face transplant. The transplant, performed last year, aims to restore Katie's face structure and functions -- such as chewing, breathing and swallowing -- which were lost in a severe gunshot injury, the haunting outcome of a suicide attempt as a teenager. Now, Katie hopes to use her historic surgery to raise awareness about the lasting harms of suicide and the precious value of life.

She is featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine's September issue , which debuted Tuesday, in an article titled "The Story of a Face" and in National Geographic's full-length documentary "Katie's Face. In the days prior to Katie's suicide attempt, she faced a number of emotional hurdles. She underwent surgery for chronic gastrointestinal problems, and she faced betrayal in a personal relationship. Around that time, Katie's mother, Alesia, was abruptly fired from a teaching job at Katie's school because Alesia "questioned several decisions that were made lacking integrity," Katie's father, Robb, told CNN.

On March 25, , when Katie was 18, her older brother, Robert Stubblefield, heard the gunfire and found her after she harmed herself in a bathroom at his home in Mississippi.

Kaepernick seeks trademark for image of his face and hair | Reuters

Katie doesn't remember that tragic day when she lost her face. She has said that she doesn't remember much of that year -- including being hospitalized in Oxford, Mississippi; being flown to another hospital in Memphis, Tennessee; and then being transferred to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where she would undergo her face transplantation three years later. It was in Memphis where Katie's parents, Robb and Alesia, heard the term "face transplant" for the first time. What do you do?

When Katie was later told about the possible procedure, she said, she was equally stunned. At left, Katie Stubblefield at 17, eight months before attempting suicide. At right, Katie at 22, one year and one month after her surgery. Full and partial face transplants are medical procedures that involve replacing all or parts of a person's face with donated tissue, including skin, bone, nerves and blood vessels from a deceased donor. Katie's procedure involved transplanting the scalp, forehead, upper and lower eyelids, eye sockets, nose, upper cheeks, upper jaw and half of lower jaw, upper teeth, lower teeth, partial facial nerves, muscles and skin -- effectively replacing her full facial tissue, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Face transplants giving people back their lives. Patrick Hardison, 41, had face transplant surgery in August Hardison, a volunteer firefighter, was injured 15 years ago. In , Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire, 39, was the first person to undergo a partial face transplant after being mauled by her dog.

Historic face transplant gives suicide survivor a 'second chance'

She is pictured a few months after her surgery and a year later. Connie Culp was injured when her husband shot her in She underwent a near-total face transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in , the first operation of its kind in the United States. Li Guoxing, China's first partial face transplant patient, stands with his family in He died in Texan Dallas Wiens, whose face was burned off after his head touched an electrical wire, was the first American to receive a full face transplant in March A year-old Polish man identified only as Grzegorz received the country's first face transplant in May , after being disfigured by a machine at a stonemason's workshop.

Polish doctors described it as the world's first life-saving face transplant. James Maki fell onto the electrified third rail at a Boston subway station on June 30, , destroying the entire of the core of his face. After having a transplant, he said he couldn't wait to eat a ribeye steak. Similar to Katie, the first recipient of a face transplant in the United States was a woman who survived a gunshot wound to the head. That patient, Connie Culp, underwent a hour transplant surgery at Cleveland Clinic and debuted her new face in That was a near-total face transplant. The world's first successful full face transplant was conducted at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, in As for where Katie fits in, "only 40 people in the world have ever had a face transplant, and we believe that she is the 39th person," said Susan Goldberg, editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine.

Brian Gastman, a plastic surgeon at Cleveland Clinic who led Katie's surgery and oversaw her care. He noted that when he first saw Katie's injury, he worried that she might not live. A surgical resident carefully cradles Katie's head to keep it still as she's situated in the intensive care unit after the hour procedureconcluded.

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To protect her eyes, her eyelids were sutured shut. With the transplant complete, Katie would still require additional operations and many months of rehabilitation.


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In March , Katie was placed on the waiting list for a face transplant. Carlos Fleming, who handles Kaepernick's business deals, did not immediately answer a request for comment.


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