Emotional Meeting for Mayo Clinic Face Transplant Patient

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota woman who gave approval for her late husband's face to be donated for transplant says she's proud to see the difference it's made in the man who got it.

Lilly Ross met Andy Sandness for the first time recently at Mayo Clinic, where Andy underwent 56 hours of surgery last year to receive the face of Lilly's husband, Calen.

Lilly had feared seeing Calen's face on another man for the possible reminders of the suicide that ended his life.

But she says she was happy to see how Sandness, whose own face was shattered by a suicide attempt, has been transformed from someone who shied away from strangers' looks into an outgoing, happier person.

The pair shared a tearful hug and Sandness held the Rosses' young son.