The humor that Katie Stubblefield has shines through when she talks about her face transplant surgical experiences.

As she puts it, “It was the longest nap of my entire life.”

such who are not acquainted with Katie’s speech style, which is still growing, may not be able to readily understand such words; nevertheless, her parents are typically there to provide interpretation. Since Katie, who was 18 years old at the time, suffered serious face injuries and considerable problems as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 25, 2014, Robb and Alesia Stubblefield have remained at her side, assisting her in “taking four steps forward, two steps back,” as Robb puts it.

Katie would be the recipient of the Cleveland Clinic’s third face transplant, as well as the institution’s first entire face transplant, which would need the participation of eleven surgeons and other specialists all working together. Having had a face transplant at the age of 21, Katie was the youngest person in the United States to have done so.

And it was indeed extensive: the surgery included transplantation of the scalp, the forehead, the upper and lower eyelids, the eye sockets, the nose, the upper cheeks, the upper jaw and half of the lower jaw, the upper teeth, the lower teeth, partial facial nerves, facial muscles, and skin. In addition, one hundred percent of her facial tissue was effectively replaced.

There is still a long way to go for Katie, despite the fact that the transplant was successful. Braille is something that Katie is studying since she is still unable to sight at the moment. Moreover, she has had additional surgical procedures in order to enhance the functionality of her jaw and tongue.

At long last, the way ahead seems to be within grasp. Katie’s aspiration is to attend college (she would want to be a counselor or a teacher), to achieve independence, and to be able to stroll down the street “and blend in,” as she puts it.

In her words, Alesia added, “Katie is given a second chance at life.”

During a meeting to ensure that she was prepared for her face transplant surgery, Katie herself gave the following statement to the Cleveland Clinic Ethics Committee: “I can’t go backward. I am required to go ahead.

As a result of her gunshot wound, Katie had sustained injuries that were both very traumatic and potentially fatal. In spite of this, when the paramedics came a few minutes later, one of them yelled out, “She is still alive.” There is a pulse here.”

It is a miracle that the single bullet merely managed to scratch her brain tissue, despite the fact that it penetrated her mouth and nasal canal and exited her skull between her eyebrows.

When Katie arrived at the hospital in Oxford, Mississippi, she was immediately intubated with an endotracheal tube and put on a ventilator. She was transported there by ambulance. Following the stabilization of her condition, she was transported by helicopter for the twenty-two minute journey to a hospital in Memphis that has a Level I trauma center.

Katie had already had surgery by the time Robb and Alesia arrived in their vehicle almost half an hour later; this would be the first of more than a dozen procedures that she would have over the course of the subsequent years.

The doctors spoke to us in a manner that was quite straightforward. If there is no gloom and doom, then there is also no peaches and cream. Robb said that one of them, an older guy, stated that it was the worst instance he had ever seen in his whole life.