Gadgetory

tell us something about yourself all day my name is Karthik on 44 I'll be 45 the last day in May I was a registered nurse up until 2007 I had two children two daughters Lysa I was just shocked I guess shocked the word shocked that it was happening when he ended up squirting lie on me I didn't know that it was lie at the time so I didn't know what it was and the threat Nisar I cast out the last time I actually thought was the only time I saw the death you did I actually thought he'd put something on me he's gonna let me on fire that was the only thing I could think of otherwise he was flirting something on me which to light me on fire so that's the only known that that was really heavy in my heart cuz I thought oh I knock until to see night change again so when I woke up that last time when I heard the police and yell I was so happy inside because I didn't die he didn't put me on fire I was still here so ii knew I was gonna live and the thought of death never occurred to me again sooo it all together occurred to me that I'd die what happens with deep chemical burns is that unfortunately lie more than acid tends to penetrate into the tissues as it sort of liquifies along the way and it damaged Carmen's skin of the entire face and most of the scalp but more importantly it damaged the deeper structures of the face as well she had something like 55 operations just to get through the acute phase of the injury from the burn to being essentially healed but then multiple reconstructive operations as well to loosen up some of the tightness especially on the neck where she had numerous operations I was calling him adult 9s an adult I got other things and that's what he mentioned to need a dog to see if I was interested in being a candidate for the face transplants well the first thing I considered I said to you is there any way simulus Ernie that you can turn the face all the way down to replace my neck because that was my biggest thing I wouldn't go through it if I was just gonna have the same stars and same tone and my neck so he said he thought he could he could do it all the way back tonight Razia which you can see he did and that would get rid of all the scars at night act the second thing was how much snow her function would I had in nine days because at the time before the face transplant I didn't have that much function I get had eyelids I couldn't blink I just had a hole in this I feel you could just feel a hole where I could look out and see you we had the Karman listed since I believe it was the early December of 2011 and actually a couple of weeks after her listing we got a potential donor but ultimately failed for other reasons but then there was essentially entire year of no offers meaning that there was not even a reasonably feasible match for her and that period of time was obviously very long for Carmen and and somewhat frustrating I can imagine so 14 months from her time of listing we finally got a call about a donor that wasn't perfect but was the best we have seen in 14 months my mom's name is Cheryl dinelli writer that's her smile that's a big smile we had a very unique relationship I feel I didn't really know anybody else who had one like us we I lost my father when I was very young when she lost the love of her life to a drunk driver and I was 2 years old and she was 27 so since then there was this we're very attached she took really good care of her body and unfortunately had high blood pressure within the last few years and wasn't on Western medication she was seeing a Vietnamese doctor he was growing her teas and I've seen him too and he's worked miracles for me and for her but this time it wasn't cutting it so she died of a stroke three months ago almost of the day dr. Tony Hawk called me I went on a Wednesday afternoon and right before I went to piano lessons instead we had a potential donor she's a little older than what I said I wanted somebody live in five years of my age especially on the higher end da-dum he said she's a little older she's 56 and he said night I wanted to ask you with that so teri because I really think she might be a good enough night and I said okay then 56 is song if you think that that's a real potential that this could happen and he said yes so then he called me again at 11:30 that night and said the family said yes her face looks great or do you want to do it and then I said yes so he said busier title r8m Wow well bats or a endless Valentine's Day the day of love did they have give in to get yes so to me that was nice gift so I I knew it and I heard it would work out so I just quickly back the face is recovered by essentially going through steps of surgical steps in a sequence that allow us to get the proper nerves muscles cartilage bone whatever is needed to replace on the recipient and the tricky part of the recovery is that the unit ultimately has to stay alive from vessels that cannot be injured and they are fairly small and they branch extensively so it's a somewhat tedious but also high-stake part of the operation if you make a bad cut you can lose everything after surgery you know I was in the hospital for six weeks and I really didn't I didn't know the donors man I didn't know her name I didn't know anything about her other than the fact that she was 56 you know I didn't know anything about her and I really wanted to know because I talked to her and I you know it's hard I didn't know what to call her so you know those kinds of thing that I really wanted to know a lot about her you know who she was what what she you know what she's lived in you know what what made her happy like me to cry those kinds of things I was really interested that I respect the family you know the family's rights and the family's grief that they were going through so I just put it in the back of my mind and I said well I hope and the next year or two I get to meet the family third I was coming down teased a certain I appointments and then staying older for the press conference on Wednesday so they they gave me a 24-hour notice or she wants to meet you and I was thrilled I was nervous I didn't I didn't know what to expect I'm you know I get told what to say I could tell how to act so I just sort of all you just sort of go with the flow you don't worry about it and then as soon as I met her it was just so easy she was just so beautiful and so accepting and and just so peaceful that she made it it was really easy to talk to her I looked at her face and and Carman know and she's and I said can I touch it and she said you can do whatever you want to my face my first thought was well I'm gonna smooch you on the lips so at some point we didn't do it then but she gave me a couple of pictures another and and she told me a lot of doubter and it just it just made me feel even better you know it made me feel like you know she's still she's still here because I've got her face so certain Orinda I that's just really nice third Narenda to have that in her life it was more like a sci-fi novel at that point I was like wow you can actually do that and I have many questions one being you know I know this might be a stupid question but is her face going to maybe sit gonna look like my mother and they said they said no they said everyone has different bone structures and so in muscle structure so it was gonna mold to her face it definitely looked like her and I guess this it was good to hear that at the time I don't know how it would have felt to have known that there's like a mom clone walking around but even if I did I maybe I would feel the same way just lucky I have to see like it to see her again I had forgotten what it was like to look not normal and the first time I would into the grocery store nobody looked at me and and that that was I noticed no that he looked at me and it was like well that's sort of really nice so then I asked her I got the face transplant did I really noticed about looking nor nor know and having people say oh your God you look great your diesel so on I and I hadn't heard that in years so that was that really sort of caught me by surprise she said I wasn't thinking about the physical looks anymore I'd sort of you know lived on from that so that was actually a pleasant surprise well I started taking piano lessons in December and he was my piano teacher down at the local dude out music well I was I was impressed with her condition in which she's been through and what she wanted to do that she wanted to move on with a life and live and live like she means it I wasn't thinking they're not having a relationship now I felt I was ready for one because I've done all this work I'd come so far I was ready to share my life again I wanted to be happy like everybody else regardless under what I look like I never felt I got a new and I never contemplated not looking like that again after all the seeking and searching I did was in to find out for myself why I was here as a human and a lot life is really adult to me I realized that all these events negative and positive are all meant to to tell us to a new place are all knit to tell us to do the Chito looking really want to be so cerny not to forgive is only hurting me it's not hurting him he's already hurt in his own way he's already created his own life nothing I can I do is gonna change him it's easy to blame someone like him that it doesn't help you why so long a hard-line there's always it brings me joy to see Carmen sharing her story with many people and she's inspiring many people that's what my mom always wanted to do I don't have any big plans or you know so much because I never know what's gonna happen because look at the turn my life has taken I knew one another than he does to guess that the only thing I want to do is to share my story meet people a lot of you know a lot of people and help down the desk I can that's what I want to do I want to pay it forward for all the good that people had given me she's my friend and I fell in love with her and I told her I'm a hundred percent behind you I have been and I will be yeah you