When Richard Norris accidentally blew off half his face with a shotgun - but has found love with Melanie Solis (above) after complicated surgery

When Richard Norris accidentally blew off half his face with a shotgun he was left so disfigured that he rarely ventured outdoors and was plagued by suicidal thoughts.

But now, having undergone one of the most complex face transplants in history, receiving teeth, a jaw and even a tongue from a donor, the 39-year-old has found love – but has had to learn how to kiss all over again.

Norris has found romance with 43-year-old Melanie Solis, from New Orleans, who got in touch with him by email after reading about his ordeal.

She told The Sun: ‘I see Richard as having a beautiful, kind heart on the inside – and he’s a hottie on the outside!

‘Those eyes and that smile just had me at first sight. Kissing is something we have been asked to “practise” because Richard hasn’t redeveloped the ability to “pucker”.'

Norris said: ‘I can’t have any regrets – especially now I have met Melanie. People focus too much on looks, they can be very superficial.’

The pair meet about once a month, with Ms Solis always on hand to offer Norris a napkin in case he dribbles or support him in a crisis.

She tells of how Norris suffered a rejection episode when he got sunburnt and sent pictures of his face to his doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who told him to board a plane without delay.

He spent three weeks recovering from the episode in hospital.

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

'He never really thought about himself in all of this,' Rodriguez told GQ earlier this year.

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

'He's a remarkable man.'

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The pair meet about once a month, with Ms Solis always on hand to offer Norris a napkin in case he dribbles or support him in a crisis.

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

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. 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.'

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.

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

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.

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

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. It’s his face that has been transplanted on to Norris.

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?' 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.

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'

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.'

Rodriguez said that one of the most common questions he is asked is: 'How is Richard dealing with having a new face?' Dr Rodriguez said: 'We always think that there is going to be a facial identity crisis. That’s the worry of people with normal faces. We think how we’d feel if this happened to us. 'But for people with disfigurements — these people have lived lives concealed from society. That’s a very different and difficult recovery.'

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

Before the transplant, Norris rarely left his home. In addition to wearing a surgical mask and baseball cap on his infrequent trips out in public, he did his shopping at night so he wouldn’t have to face the stares of as many people. 'I am now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look,' he wrote.

After years of going out of his way to avoid people, Norris is surprisingly comfortable socializing now, Rodriguez said. While Norris’s results are 'extraordinary,' Rodriguez said the full recovery will take more time. There’s the challenge of teaching Norris, who has not eaten or spoken properly for 15 years, to use his fully functional face.

The teeth plus the tongue is a lot to get used to when someone has gone so long without them, Rodriguez said. Additionally, minor surgery is planned for the soft tissue of his face, such as the eyelids where there is extra skin. But more than anything else, there is a looming question.

Even with immuno-suppressing drugs, doctors say they have no idea how long the transplant will last. There is an expectation that they will have to repair or replace the transplant eventually. Dr Rodriguez looks with hope to earlier face transplants. The world’s first full face transplant took place in Spain in 2010 and is aging well two years later.