the patient 's history , motivation and ability to understand the risks of the transplant . And they found Culp to be an ideal candidate . Five years after a gun blast shattered her nose , cheeks and upper lip , she had a band of scar tissue extending across her face . `` The most devastating of all was the fact that society had rejected her and children were afraid of her , '' said Siemionow , who led the December 10 transplant operation . See before and after photos of Culp '' Culp , a mother of two and a grandmother , told her doctors she could understand that some adults would shun her . `` But what really bothered her the most were children -- the children that shied away from her , '' said Dr. Frank Papay , the chairman of Institute of Dermatology and Plastic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic . `` That sense of innocence , and her not being able to see that innocence really , really affected her . '' The shooting In September 2004 , Culp 's estranged husband shot her in the face in an attempted murder-suicide outside a restaurant
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Doctors chose a woman who survived a shotgun wound to her face as the first recipient of a face transplant after treating her for nearly four years . This image projects what Connie Culp , 46 , may look like two years after the face transplant . Connie Culp knew of the Cleveland Clinic 's interest in face transplants and approached the medical staff , doctors said at a news conference Tuesday . Dr. Maria Siemionow , the Cleveland , Ohio , hospital 's director of plastic surgery research and head of microsurgery training , had more than 20 years of experience in complex transplants . By 2004 , Siemionow was looking for the right candidate for a face transplant who was n't doing it for vanity . `` They are not looking to go out on the street and be beautiful , '' Siemionow told CNN in a 2006 interview . `` Some of these patients , when they were interviewed just said ' I want to walk on the street and just make sure I am not sticking out . ' They just want to have a normal face . '' The doctors examined