The Woman Without a Face
This story originally aired on Oprah. After years of physical and emotional abuse, Carolyn Thomas' ex-boyfriend shot and killed her mother on December 5, 2003, then shot Thomas in the face. Miraculously, Thomas survived the attack. She spent six months in a Waco, Texas hospital. Nurses taught Carolyn how to take care of herself, change the gauze pads and dressings on her face, feed herself through a surgical port in her stomach, and clean the trachea tube that allows her to breathe and talk.
Through a national program called Face to Face: The National Domestic Violence Project, The Methodist Hospital and a team of Methodist doctors are donating their time and services to help Thomas. Drs. Eugene Alford, Donald Cohen, Jeffrey Friedman, Michael Klebuc, and Charles Soparkar, and dozens of Methodist nurses and staff, are working over the course of this year to rebuild her face. |