A Face For Chrissy

Posted by Johnny Cat in Medicine on October 2, 2009 at 2:54 pm


091001_chrissy_steltz091001_prosthetic_face

Ten years ago, Chrissy Steltz lost her eyes, nose, and part of her face when another teenager fired a shotgun from five feet away.  She has been denied prosthetic surgery because the Oregon Health Plan considered the procedure “cosmetic”, but thanks to her doctor and some charitable friends, she’ll soon have a new face.
Her injuries haven’t stopped her from living: she’s been teaching blind children life skills.  “Life is what you make it,” she said.
And now she and her partner, Jeffrey, who’s also blind, are raising their 2-month-old baby boy, which leaves no time for self-pity.  “Just because you have a tragic thing happen in your life, it doesn’t mean that your life is over,” she said.
Link with Video
Previously on Neatorama- America’s First Face Transplant
Video stills above courtesy KATU TV.

Previous post
this post? Please Email this               
Next post

Tags: , ,


FUN PRODUCTS FROM THE NEATORAMA SHOP:


COMMENT

21 comments to "A Face For Chrissy"

  1. FishBottleT
    October 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 pm

    It would be a terrible thing to lose your face or even lose the use of the face. You portray so many different emotions and commands with your face. Its good that someone helped her.

  2. SenorMysterioso
    October 2nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    "After being shot in the face with a shotgun, Steltz was able to breathe through her nasal passages for the first time in 10 years."

    Really? Cmon now.

  3. Humfrey
    October 2nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    "Cosmetic"... The sooner you get some public health insurance over there, the better.

  4. trish
    October 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    "Cosmetic"?!? Just another example of how insurance companies have waaaaaay too much control over medical procedures.

  5. emmakate
    October 2nd, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    That's horrible that it was deemed "cosmetic"

  6. emmakate
    October 2nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    Oh, and yeah the writer of that article needs to go back to Journalism School

  7. JMM
    October 2nd, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    Ah, the beauty of Oregon's socialized medicine.

    Hey, it's just one little girl. The government panel decided she doesn't need a nose job. Next!

    Come on. It's one little girl. So what?

  8. health
    October 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    I'm sorry, but if I ever lost my face I wouldn't "teach blind children life lessons," I would bitch and whine and make life hell for everyone who knew me.

  9. health
    October 2nd, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    - That is, to the best of my speaking ability.

  10. Tim Giachetti
    October 2nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm

    Poor kid. jeeeez what a story. Oregon can kiss my butt.
    Health care is a joke, being disabled myself I can't get a simple tooth pulled because dental ahs to be emergency surgery only, but I can get my teethy cleaned once a year. Go figure.

    This woman is a trooper.

  11. felixthecat
    October 3rd, 2009 at 4:36 am

    Good for her. She is a better person than I, for I would have killed myself before learning how to live with this.

  12. Hugh Smith
    October 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 am

    The rest of the story - she was shot with one of the 15 guns her boyfriend and his mates stole from a gun shop in the town of Beaver, Oregon as she waited in the getaway car.

    "Karma hits everyone. You pay for what you do," said Steltz. "I don't care if it's that day or 30 years from then or whatever. And in my opinion, I got the karma for all the guns."

  13. Jimbo
    October 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 am

    ObamaCare (AKA public health insurance) would NOT permit her to get it either. Look at Canada for example. People are having to come US to have brain tumors removed to keep from dieing. If they can't get life threatening conditions fixed, there is no way anyone would get prosthetics for anything.

    Get ready folks, it is coming and you will hate it.

  14. Horrible
    October 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am

    Face Panels now?

  15. JMM
    October 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Ah. The Socialist Republic of Oregon's Healthcare Plan.

    Yep, it's just a little girl's face. No reason for a government bureaucrat to approve the procedure at all.

  16. Lady Helena Handbasket
    October 3rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    I did some stupid things when I was a teenager that could have ended in tragedy. I was lucky, they didn't. As I got older I got smarter. This girl made a really stupid mistake and paid for it big time. I hope her surgeries are a huge success.

  17. ted
    October 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    Well, that gives gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "putting on my face".

  18. Lady Helena Handbasket
    October 4th, 2009 at 8:15 am

    Oh, and all the hysteria being written about public healthcare is amazing. I am British and this girl would have been treated on the NHS. Of course she would. One of my friends works in the prosthetics department of an NHS hospital and he is very busy arranging prosthetics for hundreds of patients. My mum had breast cancer and was offered cosmetic surgery on the NHS after her mastectomy. She decided not to bother with it and was given a prosthetic boob by the NHS instead (her choice). My friend also had a mastectomy and received cosmetic surgery from the NHS. So if you believe national health care would never offer prosthetics or cosmetic surgery you are simply wrong.

  19. Luna
    October 4th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    I do want to see an "after" picture. Healthcare should be about helping everyone, eh?

  20. ByrdBrain
    October 5th, 2009 at 10:57 am

    "The sooner you get some public health insurance over there, the better."

    Humphrey, the sooner you get some brains over there, the better. She already is on public health care, moron. It was public health care that has denied her treatment. And this is how it will soon be for all of us here. Great, huh?

  21. mthrndr
    October 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    "trish
    October 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
    “Cosmetic”?!? Just another example of how insurance companies have waaaaaay too much control over medical procedures."

    Uhh, trish? Yeah, that's not an insurance company policy. That's the Oregon State public healthcare plan - supposedly a model for how the Democrat's plan should work. So I guess if you want that to pass, you better hope you never get shot in the face.


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS