The Moment This Woman Meets The Man Given Her Brother’s Face In A Revolutionary Surgery Is Powerfully Captivating

Three years ago, Richard Norris was given a new life. Specifically, he was given a new face.

In 1997, Norris was involved in a horrific accident with a gun that took off chunks of his upper and lower jaw. For years, Norris lived with half a face, using a trachea tube to breathe and living an incredibly difficult existence.

Norris lived a sad existence due to his disfigurement. “For the past 15 years I lived as a recluse hiding behind a surgical mask,” Norris explained on the day of his transplant surgery in 2012,  “and doing most of my shopping at night when less people were around. I can now go out and not get the stares and have to hear comments that people would make. People used to stare at me because of my disfigurement. Now they can stare at me in amazement and in the transformation I have taken. I am now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look.”

Norris’s new face was sadly due to another tragedy — in 2012, the Aversano family lost their son and brother Joshua to a car accident. The family donated his face for the transplant.

Now three years later, in a segment shown on 60 Minutes Australia, Norris connects with Joshua’s sister Rebekah for the first time. He’s able to thank her and her family for his new life while Rebekah comes face to face with the man who’s now a living reminder of her deceased brother.

[via ABC 17]

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling.