A domestic abuse survivor has become the first person in the world to get a second face transplant.
Carmen Tarleton is “very happy” with her new look after surgeons were able to transform her face following her ex’s cruel chemical attack.
In 2007, she had suffered horrific burns after he hit her with a baseball bat and sprayed her face with lye.
The corrosive chemical, which is used to unclog drains and disinfect toilets, blinded her in one eye, damaged the other and left her disfigured, reports the Daily Star.
The former nurse, who lives in Vermont, in the United States (US), said she had a face transplant in 2013.
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It lasted for seven years, but her body then started rejecting it.
But after more than 70 reconstructive surgeries, Carmen was offered a second transplant, reports NBC’s TODAY.
It took a team of 40 medics around 20 hours to complete the complex surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Plastic surgeon Dr Bohdan Pomahac, who has been treating Carmen for more than 10 years, was worried that her body might reject this new face.
He told the US broadcaster: “It’s always complicated. I think the second time is a little worse in some ways because we’re dealing with a lot of unknowns again.
“We were incredibly lucky and found by pure luck a donor that had a lot of characteristics common with Carmen’s own body, something that you would hope for a sibling to have.”
The donor was mother-of-one Casey Harrington Labrie, who died from a fentanyl overdose at the age of 36 after a long battle with addiction.
Carmen thanked Casey’s family for “the biggest gift anybody could have given me” and said she is “very happy” with her new face.
She said: “This is my face. It was given to me. It’s not the original face I was born with, but it’s my face. And every time I look in the mirror, I think of Casey.”
She is now excited to see what “life’s gonna bring me” and won’t “focus on negative things”.
Herbert Rodgers, who carried out the sickening attack on Carmen, died in prison in 2017 after he was ordered to serve at least 30 years behind bars.
Earlier this month, a man who was blinded by a vicious attack when his ex-girlfriend poured sulphuric acid over him revealed he suffers from insomnia and has nightmares years on.
Daniel Rotariu, 35, was sleeping when Katie Leong threw the acid on him in in bed at the property in Leicester in July 2016.
He recalls having an argument with Leong, 52 around the time he went to sleep, before waking up to the excruciating pain.
He told the Nottingham Post : “It was 10-20 seconds maybe, in that moment I believed that I am dreaming until the pain started to kick in.
“I said ‘what is happening?’ It was so painful.”
Leong was arrested and later found guilty of attempted murder for the sick attack.
She was jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 17 years.