The first face transplant patient today went before cameras today and thanked the doctors who performed her life changing surgery following a devastating shooting incident in 2004.

Culp,46, was left horribly disfigured after her common law husband shot her in her face leaving her not being able to breathe through her nose; neither eat solid food nor drink form a cup.

While I know you all want to focus on me, I think it's more important you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this Christmas present, I guess I should say, Connie Culp of Ohio said at a press conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where a team of surgeons performed the surgery five months ago.

A 23-hour surgery in December replaced eighty percent of her face with skin, nerves, muscle and tissue from a deceased donor, Doctors gave Culp new cheeks, eyelids, an upper lip, and nose.

Culp urged attendants not to judge others based on their appearance as, “you never know what happened to them.”

Watch a clip of Connie Culp speaking at the Cleveland Clinic below:

Medicine