KATIE STUBBLEFIELD: ANOTHER CHANCE AT LIFE

Who is Katie Stubblefield?

Katie Stubblefield was once a dedicated and hard-working high-school pupil who, in a moment of impulse, attempted suicide.

Katie’s life was defined in her early days by a series of moves and a rollercoaster relationship.

During her high school years, Katie fell in love with a boy and apparently the couple talked about marriage.

When Katie Stubblefield's boyfriend broke up with her, in a moment of madness and despair, the pretty teenager snatched her brother Robert's hunting rifle, locked herself in the bathroom and shot herself in the head.

When Robert kicked down the door, he discovered his sister with her face 'gone'.

The bullet, which was fired upwards as she rested the gun barrel under her chin, had destroyed almost everything in an upwards and inwards triangle, from her chin to between her eyebrows.

The 18-year-old's nose and sinuses, her mouth (apart from the corners of her lips), part of her forehead, and most of her jaw and facial bones were destroyed. Her eyes were so badly damaged she was left with limited vision.

The bullet destroyed almost everything in an upwards and inwards triangle, from her chin to between her eyebrows

Astonishingly, Katie survived. Perhaps even more astonishingly, doctors have been able to give her a new face and the opportunity of a life with some semblance of normality.

Three years and 22 operations later, Katie became, at the age of 21, the youngest person ever to receive a full face transplant.

She is one of 40 people worldwide to have undergone the procedure, but surgeons who treated her believe she had the worst injuries of any patient to date, requiring one of the most extensive transplants yet undertaken.

It culminated in an epic, 31-hour procedure at the world-famous Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, during which a team of doctors effectively replaced 100 per cent of her facial tissue with that of a 31-year-old female donor.

Katie Stubblefield Before, 18years (left). Katie Stubblefield After, 21years(right)

Even now, her ordeal is not over. She is, in effect, a human guinea pig in an immensely complicated specialism still in its infancy.

Her progress — indeed, her survival — is fraught with the risk of her body rejecting the transplanted face, so she must remain on high doses of powerful immuno-suppressive drugs and be constantly monitored by doctors.

There is also, sadly, a risk of Katie herself 'rejecting' her new identity. At least one other face transplant recipient has committed suicide.

What emerges from her story is Katie's determination to embrace this second chance she's been given, whatever the challenges.

Raised in a devoutly Christian family in Lakeland, Florida, Katie was 'fearless and a lot of fun' as a child, and shared a sardonic wit with her older brother, Robert, according to their sister, Olivia.

As she matured, she became immensely competitive at school and in sport. But after the family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, she suffered a succession of setbacks, including medical problems and her mother losing her job as a teacher at Katie's school.

Then, in March 2014, Katie discovered her boyfriend was sending text messages to another girl, and he ended their relationship. Distraught, she went to her brother's home and attempted suicide.

In the aftermath, she was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to another in Memphis, Tennessee, where surgeons managed to keep her alive but failed in their attempt to cover the huge wound in her face with a tissue graft from her abdomen.

Five weeks later, she was moved to the Cleveland Clinic, where surgeons looked at her tiny, 7 st 7 lb frame and wondered whether they could find enough tissue for the reconstructive work she required.

In May 2017, Sandra Bennington agreed to donate her granddaughter Adrea Schneider's face, after she died from a cocaine overdose.

Adrea Schneider, 31, was the donor face after she died of a cocaine overdose. 

Katie's surgery was financed through the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which researches the treatment of injured servicemen. Her age and injuries provided the institute with a close equivalent of a typical battlefield victim.

The 31-hour operation began on May 4 — three days after Adrea had died. It involved 11 surgeons and several other specialists who had been practising for months on cadavers, one team removing the face of the donor and the other attaching it to the recipient.

Katie was discharged from hospital in August 2017 to continue convalescence and therapy.

She takes 'a two-and-a-half-page list' of drugs each day, works with a speech therapist because her tongue isn't functioning properly, studies Braille because of her limited vision and has physical and occupational therapy.

She's had three major 'clean-up' operations since the transplant to fine-tune the transformation, including one to help her speak more clearly.

There will be more operations to come, and Katie and her parents are still living near the clinic. One possibility is 'whole eye' transplants — which scientists say will be possible within a decade — to improve her sight.

The psychological adjustments for all concerned have proved a challenge. Katie's mother says she saw nothing of her daughter in her new face, and even wonders if she might have inherited a new personality.

Katie's future is uncertain; her body could reject the transplanted face and the immunosuppressant drugs she must take to reduce the risk make her vulnerable to infection and cancer.

However, her doctors deem the surgery a success, not least because her body hasn't rejected her transplant so far. But they had hoped her vision would be better.

Katie herself describes her rehabilitation process as 'many, many daily steps', adding: 'I am able to touch my face now, and it feels amazing.'

Three years and 22 operations later, Katie became, at the age of 21, the youngest person ever to receive a full face transplant

She is busy planning for the future and hopes to take an online university course and become a counsellor and motivational speaker, steering teenagers away from suicide.

'Life is an amazing gift and I am thankful to have a second chance to live my life,' she says. 'So many people have helped me; now I want to help other people.'

For the surgeons who gave her that second chance, she remains a testament to many things — to the terrible consequences of a single, rash decision, to strength in adversity and, above all, to the indomitable human spirit to live.


Source: DailyMail