An Ohio woman, who underwent near-total surgery on her face after a shot gun blast from her husband five years ago left her without a nose, revealed the results of her surgery for the first time before public.

Surgeons transplanted about 80 percent of Culp’s face using facial tissue from a dead woman that was placed like a mask atop her own. Almost her entire face was replaced, except for the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip and chin.

Culp was left without the middle section of her face after a shotgun blast in 2004.

The team of 11 surgeons who performed the operation said Culp, who was missing bone support and had been unable to eat or breathe without a tube in her windpipe, could now perform functions normally.

Culp, whose identity had been previously withheld, paid tribute to the donor family at a news conference.

“I guess I’m the one you came to see today, ” she told reporters but added, “I think it’s more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person’s face.”

The transplant is only the fourth to be carried out. Two operations have been conducted in France and one in China.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet