'No one gives me a second look': Shotgun victim who had the most ambitious face transplant ever models in men's mag

Richard Lee Norris, 39, spent over 10 years hiding behind a mask and only shopping at night after sustaining horrific injuries in 1997



Had jawbones, teeth, tongue, muscles and nerves replaced during 36-hour operation at University of Maryland involving 150 doctors and nurses in 2012



He got new face from donor whose organs saved five other lives that day

Now on the cover on the GQ saying he is proud and willing to be studied for the rest of his life



In the world of medical journals, Richard Norris is a rock star.

Horribly disfigured after a shotgun accident blew off half his face, the 39-year-old underwent one of the most complex face transplants in history, receiving teeth, a jaw and even a tongue from a donor.

The 36-hour hour operation was extremely controversial - it was elective surgery, and Norris only had a 50 percent chance of survival - but the result was not only a new life for him, but a groundbreaking new study for doctors learning to treat soldiers and other victims of severe facial injuries.

'A drop of hope can create an ocean, but a bucket of faith can create an entire world,' Norris tells GQ, which he features in next month.

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Model star: Richard Norris, 39, appears in GQ this month, talking about the life-changing face transplant he received in 2012 and how it has become a landmark study around the world

Norris said he is proud to be a 'lab rat' and happy to spend the rest of his life in and out of hospitals being evaluated by surgeons.

The doctor that performed the operation at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Dr Eduardo Rodriguez, said when Norris opted to undergo the intense procedure, he was agreeing to take on an enormous responsibility.



'He never really thought about himself in all of this,' Rodriguez told the magazine.



'He's always thought about helping the wounded warriors and the other people, and providing hope. He's a remarkable man.'



Norris was 22 when his face 'exploded'.



He had arrived home drunk and was arguing with his mother when he took a shotgun from his gun cabinet and told his mom he was going to shoot himself.



He racked a shell into the chamber and the gun went off.

Grateful: Richard Norris sits in the office of Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez in 2013, who led the surgical team that performed the face transplant

Care: Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez inspects Norris' skin. In the 15 years since a shotgun blew half of Norris' face off, he faced cruelty from strangers, fought addiction and contemplated suicide

There was human flesh, bone and teeth on all four walls of Norris' bedroom and all over his mother.

Each day became a living nightmare for Norris as he faced cruelty from strangers whenever he ventured outdoors, fought addiction and contemplated suicide.

The accident left Norris with no teeth, no nose and only part of his tongue. He was still able to taste but could not smell. When he went out in public, usually at night, he hid behind a hat and mask.

Norris had dozens of surgeries to repair his face, but eventually reached the limits of what conventional surgery could do for him, said Dr. Rodriguez.

Some parts of the anatomy, such as eyelids and lips, are just too complex to recreate, he noted.

'You can create a semblance of something, but I can guarantee you it's not normal by any means.'

Disfigured: When he shot himself in the face in 1997 he lost his nose, lips and most movement in his mouth



Life saving: He has had multiple life-saving, reconstructive surgeries but none as successful as this

Just weeks after Norris was told by another doctor that there was little else that could be done for him, Rodriguez presented him with another option: a transplant.

The doctor, who is the chair of the plastic surgery department at NYU Langone Medical Center, had been following advancements in the face transplant field for years.

An Office of Naval Research grant for the purpose of helping wounded warriors made it possible for him and his team to attempt their first face transplant, an operation that previously had been performed by only two other centers in the United States.

The world's first partial face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who was mauled by her dog. Of the 27 other transplants that have followed, four recipients have died, and the survivors face a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs, which can take a toll on their health.



The face isn't an organ like a liver or a heart, which are regularly transplanted.

The face is more like a hand or foot, and Norris' body will always regard his new face as a foreign object, causing his immune system to constantly attack it.

He will take a cocktail of anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life, which lower Norris' immune system.

This leaves him vulnerable to many health problems.

He is also not allowed to drink, smoke, get sunburned or risk injury, all of which will only worsen the rejection.

A serious rejection results in death.

Norris has had two since the 2012 operation, and spent weeks in hospital on intravenous medication.



The rejection was the major danger of performing the operation in the first place.

Once Rodriguez began, there was no turning back, and if the transplant didn't take to Norris, there would have been nothing left of his face and he would have died.



Finally me: For the first time in 15 years, Richard recognizes himself when he looks in the mirror

'Humbled': Norris said he is humbled by the gift he received from the family of 21-year-old donor Joshua Aversano, who died after being struck by a minivan while crossing the street

Unlike most organ transplant recipients, who need their surgeries to live, face transplant patients are risking death to eliminate a non-life-threatening condition, noted Dr. Mark Ehrenreich, the psychiatric consultant to Norris' transplant team.

Rodriguez says patients are well aware of the situation.

'If you talk to these patients, they will tell you it is worth the risk,' he said.

The team carefully lays out all of the dangers for patients: Norris' mother, Sandra, remembers Rodriguez saying there was a 50-50 chance her son would survive the surgery.

'We looked at Richard and we told him we loved him the way he was and it didn't matter to us, but it was his life,' she said. 'That was what he wanted to do and we supported him.'

Norris said he is humbled by the gift he received from the family of 21-year-old Joshua Aversano, who died after being struck by a minivan while crossing the street.



Message: He hopes his story sends a message of hope to people in similar situations and encourages empathy in others

Norris said he speaks to the Maryland family regularly and keeps them updated on his life and health.

Norris' 36-hour transplant operation is still considered the most extensive ever conducted because it included transplantation of the teeth, upper and lower jaw, a portion of the tongue and all of the tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck, Rodriguez said.

'The real main limitation ... is that patients are dependent on medication for life,' he said. The immunosuppressant medications carry risks for the patients, who don't know how long the transplant will last. Rodriguez said if all goes well, a transplanted face could last 20 to 30 years.

For Norris, who makes daily visual checks, the risk of rejection is never far from his mind.

'Every day I wake up with that fear: Is this the day? The day I'm going to go into a state of rejection that is going to be so bad that the doctors can't change it?'

Hero: Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, speaks with Norris at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore

New life: Norris completes homework for an online art history college course that he has enrolled in since the operation

When Norris saw his new face in a mirror for the first time, he wrote: 'The only thing I could do was hug Dr. Rodriguez'

But he said he can't let himself worry about it too much, and he knows that he's in good hands.

Norris had to learn how to eat and talk again and adjust each time his face gains more feeling. He continues with therapy, travels to Baltimore from his home in Hillsville, Va., regularly to see doctors, and still takes pain and immunosuppressant medications. He says his faith in God has carried him through it all; that he has maintained a sense of humor and remained the same person inside.

And he agrees with doctors, who dismiss a commonly held belief that face transplant patients are likely to experience an identity crisis.

The bigger issue for Norris is being able to appear in public again. Facial disfigurement tends not to engender sympathy, leaving patients feeling shunned, Ehrenreich noted.

'Unfortunately, with severe facial disfigurement, people recoil and make comments they would never make to someone in a wheelchair,' he said.



'When I look in the mirror, I see Richard Norris.

'When I was disfigured, just walking the sidewalk, I was surprised that more people didn't walk into telephone poles or break their necks to stare at me.

'Now ... there's no one paying attention. Unless they know me personally, they don't know I am a face transplant patient. That right there is the goal we had.'



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