Moment woman comes face to face with dead brother’s face after it was transplanted onto someone else

This sister saw her brother's face for the first time after his death - except it was actually transplanted on someone else.

In one of the weirdest occurrences imaginable, a man has had someone else's face surgically placed over his own, following a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In a story covered by 60 Minutes Australia, they speak to Norris, his parents and the sister of the man behind the original face.

Richard Norris suffered from facial disfigurement following an incident in 1997 when, during an argument with his mother, he threatened to shoot himself.

According to the police report, Norris loaded a shell into the gun's chamber, the gun went off and blew half of his face off, including his nose, lips, teeth and chin.

Following a number of surgeries and procedures that ultimately proved unsuccessful, Norris was left depressed and suicidal.

He was 22 years old at the time of the accident, and 15 years later, he was given a second chance by the Aversano family as their son Joshua was killed after being run over by a car in Baltimore.

The 21-year-old's family heard of Norris' situation from doctors, and donated their son's face to him as they shared a lot of the same facial features, and helped them carry out the first ever full face transplant.

Norris is extremely grateful to the Aversano family for their help. (60 Minutes Australia)

The 36 hour procedure in March 2012 involved transplanting teeth, a jaw, tongue muscles and nerves - with Norris only being given a 50 percent chance of survival.

It proved to be successful, and three years on from the operation, Norris was happily living his life with his new face.

In a segment for60 Minutes he was visited by Rebekah Aversano, Joshua's sister, to meet him and see her brother's face for the first time since death.

Rebekah met him at his home in Virginia, and after sharing an emotional embrace, she asks: "Do you mind if I touch it?"

After he obliges, she is left shocked and says: "Oh my gosh, that's amazing."

She takes in every facial feature, emotionally admitting: "This is the face that I grew up with.

"He's gone, but in a way he's still here."

Despite being 'offended' when doctors asked the family's permission to donate Joshua's face immediately after the accident, Rebekah has come to terms with the decision and even admitted that she feels closer to Joshua after seeing his face again.

Joshua's sister, Rebekah, couldn't believe what she was seeing. (60 Minutes)

Norris, now 39, said in response: "Thank you is just not enough, there are no words to describe how thankful and grateful I am to their family."

Rebekah then sympathised with how Norris' parents might have felt as they shared their gratitude to her and her parents.

Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who was responsible for the revolutionary operation, said that Norris has taken on a huge responsibility for the rest of his life as his body will always recognise his face as a foreign object, so his immune system will be ready to launch an attack if anything goes wrong.

To combat this, he cannot drink, smoke or get sunburned for the rest of his life, and must take a cocktail of anti-rejection drugs every day.

Topics: Health, Weird, News, US News

Joshua Nair

Joshua Nair is a journalist at LADbible. Born in Malaysia and raised in Dubai, he has always been interested in writing about a range of subjects, from sports to trending pop culture news. After graduating from Oxford Brookes University with a BA in Media, Journalism and Publishing, he got a job freelance writing for SPORTbible while working in marketing before landing a full-time role at LADbible. Unfortunately, he's unhealthily obsessed with Manchester United, which takes its toll on his mental and physical health. Daily.

@joshnair10