The story of the ‘Face-Off’ girl

In 1994, the world’s first full-face replant operation was perfomed by Dr Abraham Thomas, one of India’s leading microsurgeons, on nine-year old Sandeep Kaur (India), who had her face and scalp ripped off.

The hapless girl’s face was amputated when her braids got caught in a threshing machine while her mother was chopping grass to feed the family buffaloes. The grass-cutter kept on dragging in until the skin above her neck tore, and her scalp got ripped off, on her family’s farm in Chak Khurd, northern India.

Sandeep’s mother, Harpal, put the face into a plastic bag, and then took her to Christian Medical College hospital – a drive of over three hours. Dr Thomas was on duty and performed a 10-hour operation to reconnect nerves and bloodvessels.

The operation was successful and in 2005 Sandeep has not only recovered from the trauma after the 1994 accident, but also leads a normal life. After that miraculous recovery she was so impressed by the medical profession that she decided to study and became a nurse. Today, after years of hard work and therapy, she did become a nurse and is married to a loving husband with two children.