Face swaps
Domestic-abuse survivor Carmen Tarleton’s life was changed forever in 2007, when her ex-husband attacked her with a baseball bat and doused her in lye – a chemical cleaning solution. The then-39-year-old nurse suffered 80% burns, leaving her blind and so badly disfigured that she lost her eyelids, lips and an ear. But in 2013, she became the recipient of a complete face transplant.
Carmen’s new face massively improved her quality of life, but after seven years, despite anti-rejection drugs, the transplant began to fail.
Fortunately, in July 2020, she received a second face transplant, which was a much better tissue match than the first.
Following the 20-hour surgery, Carmen has now undergone 73 procedures, and every feature on her face has been donated, except for one ear. ‘This is my face. It was given to me. It’s not the original face I was born with, but it’s my face,’ she said.