A Michigan woman whose face was “pulverized” after her stepfather shot her has received a new nose reconstructed from her own rib cage bone.
Amedy Dewey, 24, was left legally blind and suffered severe facial injuries when her stepfather shot her in the face, killed her mother before finally turning the gun on himself during a a violent attack in January 2018.
Dewey, who has already undergone 20 surgeries following the shooting, finally received a new nose to replace the one she lost.
A six-hour surgery, including the removal of a six-centimeter section of bone from his ribcage, allowed surgeons to reconstruct Dewey’s nose using a technique developed during the First World War.
Amedy Dewey, 24, was left legally blind and disfigured when her stepfather shot her in the face in 2018.
Dewey, pictured before the attack, is now legally blind and has had to undergo 20 facial surgeries.
Dave and Lisa Somers were both found shot by their car in Lowell, Michigan on January 6, 2018.
On the way to surgery, Dewey and his aunt stopped at a gas station and a little girl asked him why she didn’t have an eye.
Dewey told the child he had to be removed after “a very bad man hurt me,” she recalled. in USA today.
“I have family members who are afraid of me,” Dewey told the outlet.
“When I have little kids who don’t know me at all and they do that, I feel like I’m a human being again, not this object they’re looking at.”
Surgeons at Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, led by specialist craniofacial plastic surgeon Dr. Christian Vercler, removed the rib bone, chiseled it before inserting the bone beneath Dewey’s skin and put it in place.
Vercler, who performed many of Dewey’s other surgeries, told USA Today that repairing a face following a gunshot wound involved improvisation rather than following a step-by-step plan in a more standard procedure.
Vercler had previously used a bone from Dewey’s ribcage to reconstruct part of his cheekbone that had been taken away by the gunshot wound.
The technique was created during World War I by Dr. Harold Gillies, the father of modern plastic surgery.
“He’s quite famous for pioneering many facial reconstruction techniques,” Vercler told USA Today.
The gunshot wound left Dewey with serious facial injuries.
Surgeons at Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, led by specialist craniofacial plastic surgeon Dr. Christian Vercler (pictured center), reconstructed a nose for Dewey.
Dewey took her mother’s stuffed animal with her to the doctor’s office in Ann Arbor.
The operation lasted almost six hours, much longer than the three initially planned, but Vercler was satisfied with the results.
“You can imagine, in World War I, with the trench warfare, a lot of these guys, if they weren’t killed by an explosion in the face, as they went through the trench, they were devastated.
“And so they would send them all back from the Eastern Front to England, and Gillies would find ways to rebuild their faces.”
Adding: “It’s about understanding the anatomy and how you can move the pieces.”
“It’s all about understanding the anatomy and how the parts can be moved,” Vercler said. “It’s kind of a principle that’s been around for a long time.”
The operation lasted almost six hours, much longer than the three initially planned, but Vercler was satisfied with the results.
“Everything went very well, you know, it was a challenge as always,” he said.
“I think it’s huge, but no one else does,” Dewey told the outlet a few weeks after the surgery.
“It’s just a matter of me. I haven’t had a nose in five years,” she explained.
Dewey, 24, with her boyfriend, Charles Austin, 21, at her home in Scottville earlier this year
Dewey is now with his grandmother and studying at community college
She aspires to train as a trauma therapist and work in domestic violence advocacy.
Dewey told USA Today that his stepfather was often violent and would reach for his gun when he was angry.
Dewey kisses his father Robert Dewey, 47, before his nose reconstruction surgery
Dewey now lives in Luddington with her grandmother where she attends community college.
She aspires to train as a trauma therapist and work in domestic violence advocacy.
“I’m a survivor,” she told the TV station. “What I experienced, I don’t want people to experience that.
“And especially teenagers and young women who feel like they don’t have a voice,” she said.
“People need to understand that he was showing signs even before all of this happened,” she said.
“I want people to see this and hear this and be like, holy shit, I’m in a similar situation.”
Dave and Lisa Somers, both 51, were found shot to death near their car on Interstate-96 near Lowell, Michigan, on January 6, 2018.
Dewey, just eighteen years old at the time, was shot in the face by Somers, but miraculously survived.
The couple married in 2013 after meeting on an adult county softball team.
Lisa had three children from previous relationships, daughter Amedy and two sons, Adam and Dylan Helminiak. She accused her husband of having an affair, which allegedly led to the argument that led to their deaths.
Dewey told USA Today that his stepfather was often violent and would reach for his gun when he was angry.
In the United States, nearly two-thirds of intimate partner homicides involve a gun, according to data from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.