If you’re not familiar with the story, in 2004, Ms. Culp’s husband, Thomas G. Culp, tried to kill his wife by shooting her in the face with a shotgun. She survived (as did he, unfortunately, and is now serving a seven-year prison sentence for aggravated attempted murder).

But while Ms. Culp survived, her face was horribly disfigured. Do a search online for Connie Culp and you can get photos of her before the shooting and after. The shotgun shattered her cheeks, nose, one eye and the roof of her mouth. Ms. Culp has reported that it was terribly uncomfortable for her to go out in public because of the stares she would get.

Enter Dr. Risal Djohan. While not a plastic surgeon by normal practice, Dr. Djohan combined plastic surgery methods with transplant procedures to perform what is being hailed as the first human face transplant. A donor had left permission to use the biggest portion of the organs and constructions that comprised her face to be used later for this procedure.

Dr. Djohan and associates have performed six major reconstructions and 30 total operations before the face transplant itself,and then the actual transplant. He says the patient can expect two or three more operations to improve the look of the face, including removing excess skin tissue. Most of these two or three procedures will be almost entirely plastic-surgery-related.

According to what I read in The Associated Press, Ms. Culp can now smile and eat and drink. Her face remains a bit bloated and squarish, and there are skin droops. However, this bloatedness and these folds should be improved with the operations yet to come, as the doctors pare away some of the excess skin. Eventually, they say, her face will begin to look like something of a combination of Ms. Culp’s own face and the donor’s.

This, I believe, is a tribute to what modern medicine can be and should be. Remember every time you read about the quacks and the whackos in the plastic surgery field and the tragedies that taken place, there are ten more stories of instances in which plastic surgery has genuinely saved a person’s way of life and way of looking at themselves. This story of Ms. Culp and Dr. Djohan is a story of heroes. But there are lots of other unsung heroes in the world of plastic surgery.