A Wyoming man who was suicidal to the point that he put a pistol to his lips and pressed the trigger in an attempt to terminate his life has been given a new lease on life as a result of a remarkable operation that gave him the face of another person.

Andy Sandness now has the nose, lips, mouth, cheeks, jaw, chin, and even the teeth of a 21-year-old guy from the Midwest who killed himself last year, his family members and physicians said. This comes almost eleven years after Andy Sandness failed in his effort to end his life by taking his own life.

Reed, the boy’s thrilled father, said in amazement that “it’s beyond our wildest dreams.”

Sandness, who is 32 years old and works as an electrician in Newcastle, told the physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who carried out the arduous 56-hour surgery, “It far exceeded my expectations.”

When he continued, he said, “Once you lose something that you’ve had forever, you know what it’s like not to have it — and once you get a second chance to have it back, you never forget it.”

According to Sandness, he was suicidally despondent when he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head in December of 2006.

However, the minute he fired the trigger, he was aware that what he had done was a mistake.

“Please, please don’t let me pass away!” He pleaded with the medical personnel who had rushed to his aid.

After shooting himself, he had eight operations over a period of 4.5 months, but he still couldn’t bring himself to look at himself in the mirror, he claimed. This was after he had already shot himself.

In the previous year, he made the decision to search for a face donor and placed his name to the waiting list maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Calen “Rudy” Ross, an outdoorsman from the Midwest, took his own life in June when his wife, Lilly, who was 19 years old and expecting their first child, was eight months pregnant.

Lily contacted a representative from the charity organization LifeSource, which assists families in the process of organ and tissue donation, in order to fulfill one of Ross’s last desires, which was to give his organs, including his face.

“At first,” Lilly said, “I was skeptical.” “I didn’t want to be walking around and all of a sudden see Calen.”

Sandness would maintain his eyes and forehead, but she stated she understood that he wouldn’t look precisely like her late husband. However, she decided to give his face when representatives explained this to her.

On June 16, authorities claimed that the transplant was a 56-hour procedure that required the participation of 60 different medical professionals, including surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and others. It was the very first face transplant performed at that particular facility.
The results are nothing short of a “miracle,” in the words of Dr. Samir Mardini, a plastic surgeon who assisted in the performance of the operation.

Sandness had a follow-up procedure in the month of December to tighten the skin on his face and neck and to build up bone around his eyes.

In addition to working with a speech therapist, he has been strengthening the facial muscles in his face.

Now that he is “just another face in the crowd,” Sandness exclaims that he couldn’t be happier.