A NEW FACE, A NEW LIFE

56-hour transplant after gunshot

A Wyoming man so intent on ending his life that he put a shotgun underneath his chin and pulled the trigger has a new lease on life, thanks to a miraculous surgery that gave him another person’s face.

Nearly 11 years after his suicide attempt, Andy Sandness now has the nose, lips, mouth, cheeks, jaw, chin and even the teeth of a 21year-old Midwestern man who killed himself last year, Andy’s family and doctors revealed.

“It’s beyond our wildest dreams,” said his father, Reed.

Sandness, 32, an electrician from Newcastle, told doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who performed the 56-hour operation, “It far exceeded my expectations.”

He added, “Once you lose something that you’ve had forever, you know what it’s like not to have it — and once you get a second chance to have it back, you never forget it.”

Sandness was drunk and hopelessly depressed when he shot himself in December 2006, he said. But he knew the moment he pulled the trigger that it was a mistake. “Please, please don’t let me die!” he begged medics who raced to his rescue.

He had eight surgeries over a 4¹/2-month period but could hardly bear to look at himself in the mirror, he said. Last year, he set out to find a facial donor and added his name to a list with the United Network for Organ Sharing.

In June, Calen “Rudy” Ross, an outdoorsman from the Midwest, fatally shot himself. One of Ross’ last wishes was to donate his organs, so his wife, Lily, met with a rep from LifeSource, which helps facilitate organ and tissue donation.

“I was skeptical at first,” Lily said. “I didn’t want to walk around and all of a sudden see Calen.”

She agreed to donate his face after reps explained Sandness would keep his own eyes and forehead — and that he wouldn’t look exactly like her late husband.

The June 16 transplant required the services of 60 medical professionals, including surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and assistants, officials said. It was the clinic’s first facial transplant.

The outcome is nothing short of a “miracle,” said Dr. Samir Mardini, a plastic surgeon who was on the team.

In December, Sandness had follow-up surgery to tighten skin on his face and neck and build up bone around his eyes. His facial muscles are growing stronger and he’s seeing a speech therapist.

Now he’s thrilled to be, “just another face in the crowd,” he said.

LOOKING GOOD: Wyoming resident Andy Sandness (above) is grateful to surgeons who transplanted the face of a dead man onto his mangled head. A decade ago, a younger Sandness (inset below) was drunk and depressed when he blasted himself under the chin...