Two years ago he received the world’s most expensive facial transplant after he was left severely disfigured following a drunken accident with a shotgun in 1997.
The 39-year-old’s complex reconstruction, which involved the transplantation of the teeth, upper and lower jaw, a portion of the tongue and all facial tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck, was performed by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, NYU’s chair of plastic surgery.
Norris’s donor has also been identified for 21-year-old Joshua Aversano, who died after being hit by a minivan.
Before the surgery Norris spent almost 15 years as a virtual recluse, only surfacing outdoors in ski masks that would hide his disfigurement.
Richard as a young man in 1993 and as he appeared just before surgery in 2012. PHOTO: GQ/ Corbis.
The cover star tells GQ he hopes to be an inspiration to others knocked down by disfiguring injuries.
“Sometimes God will put you on your back to make you look up,” said Norris. “Sometimes you need that nudge.”
The Surgery was the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure. The first full face transplant was undertaken in France in 2005 on a woman who was attacked by her dog.
While Norris will spend the rest of his life in and out of hospital and on immunosuppression drugs, to stop his body from rejecting the face, he tells GQ he is happy to be a “lab rat”.
“A drop of hope can create an ocean, but a bucket of faith can create an entire world,” he said.
