Here’s the face of tragedy and triumph.
A man who received a face transplant two years ago because his face was badly disfigured in a shotgun accident posed for GQ to show off his new look.
Cover boy Richard Norris bravely showed off his new face, telling the magazine he hopes to be an inspiration to others knocked down by disfiguring injuries.
“Sometimes God will put you on your back to make you look up,” said Norris, who injured himself in a 1997 shotgun accident. “Sometimes you need that nudge.”
Norris and the surgeon who gave him this miracle — NYU’s chair of plastic surgery, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez — said they’re particularly interested in reaching soldiers suffering from ballistic facial wounds.
“A drop of hope can create an ocean,” said the remarkably unremarkable-looking Norris. “But a bucket of faith can create an entire world.”
The Maryland resident was 22 when his nose, cheekbones, lips, tongue, teeth, jaw and chin were blown off with one pull of a shotgun trigger.
He had been arguing with his mom about going out too much.
“Richard took a shotgun from his gun cabinet and told Mrs. Norris that he would just shoot himself. When Richard racked a shell into the shotgun’s chamber, the gun fired,” according to a Henry County, Maryland, sheriff’s report.
“There was what appeared to be human flesh, bone, and teeth on all four walls in Richard’s bedroom.”
Norris said he’s grateful for Rodriguez, then at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and 21-year-old face donor Joshua Aversano, who was killed in a traffic accident.
The 36-hour procedure began on March 19, 2012.
Norris and his parents keep a high school portrait of their son and a picture of Aversano on their fireplace mantle. The resemblance is striking.
“Isn’t that amazing?” mom Sandra Norris said. “The likeness? It’s Richard.”
Rodriguez said he knew Norris was a good candidate for the groundbreaking surgery. The world’s first face transplant was performed only in 2005 and only three American hospitals have done the procedure.
“I had developed a relationship with Richard, so I knew the kind of person he is,” Rodriguez said.
“This is an individual that I can trust as someone that can really care for this gift. Keep in mind, someone had to die for him to receive this face. So there’s a certain sense of responsibility and burden that I need to make sure that this is not going to be wasted. This has to be a responsible person that will share the precious gift and take this gift and make something with it, and of it.”
Life is far from grand for Norris.
The skin, muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels and tongue he received in the transplant are nothing more than foreign invaders, in the view of Norris’ immune system.
So he takes heavy medications that weaken the immune system, leaving him vulnerable to virtually any disease.
Norris will be on a five-drug regimen for the rest of his life. He can’t drive and his hands still struggle to grip even a bottle.
For the rest of his time on Earth, Norris said, he wants to meet as many people with facial injuries as he can to tell them there’s hope in medical miracles like his.
“This is what I am,” Norris said. “There is nothing more important than a face.”