Dr. Bodhan Pomahac, at podium, with his surgical team, speaks to reporters regarding the face transplant of Carmen Blandin Tarleton, pictured left, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Tarleton underwent the surgery earlier this month. The 44-year-old Tarleton,of Thetford, Vt., was attacked by her former husband in 2007. He doused her with industrial strength lye. She suffered chemical burns over 80 percent of her body. The mother of two wrote a book about her experience that describes her recovery.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Dr. Bodhan Pomahac, at podium, with his surgical team, speaks to reporters regarding the face transplant of Carmen Blandin Tarleton, pictured left, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Tarleton underwent the surgery earlier this month. The 44-year-old Tarleton,of Thetford, Vt., was attacked by her former husband in 2007. He doused her with industrial strength lye. She suffered chemical burns over 80 percent of her body. The mother of two wrote a book about her experience that describes her recovery.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2008 file photo, Carmen Tarleton is interviewed in her home in Thetford, Vt. Tarleton, the Vermont woman whose face was disfigured in a lye attack received a face transplant. Doctors at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital say 44-year-old Tarleton underwent the surgery earlier in February, 2013. A team worked 15 hours to transplant the facial skin, including the neck, nose, lips, facial muscles, arteries and nerves. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
This undated photograph provided by the Brigham and Women's Hospital on Wednesday Feb. 27, 2013 shows face transplant patient Carmen Blandin Tarleton, right, with her sister Kesstan Blandin, before she was attacked. Tarleton, 44, underwent the face transplant surgery earlier in February 2013. She was doused with industrial strength lye by her former husband in 2007 and suffered chemical burns over 80 percent of her body. The mother of two wrote a book about her experience that describes her recovery. (AP Photo/Brigham and Women's Hospital)
This July 2011 handout photograph provided Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 by the Brigham and Women's Hospital shows face transplant patient Carmen Blandin Tarleton, of Thetford, Vt., before her surgery, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Tarleton underwent the face transplant surgery earlier in February. The 44-year-old Tarleton,of Thetford, Vt., was attacked by her former husband in 2007. He doused her with industrial strength lye. She suffered chemical burns over 80 percent of her body. The mother of two wrote a book about her experience that describes her recovery. (AP Photo/Brigham and Women's Hospital)
Doctors applaud after Kesstan Blandin, sister of face transplant patient Carmen Blandin Tarleton, read a statement from her sister at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Tarleton underwent the surgery earlier this month. The 44-year-old Tarleton, was attacked by her former husband in 2007. He doused her with industrial strength lye. She suffered chemical burns over 80 percent of her body. The mother of two wrote a book about her experience that describes her recovery.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
BOSTON (AP) ? The 2007 chemical attack left the Vermont nurse unrecognizable to anyone who knew her.
But now Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face has changed again following a facial transplant this month.
Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial muscles, arteries and nerves.
"I know how truly blessed I am, and will have such a nice reflection in the mirror to remind myself what selfless really is," Tarleton wrote on her blog Wednesday.
The Thetford, Vt., woman suffered burns on more than 80 percent of her body and was blinded after her estranged husband attacked her with a baseball bat and doused her with lye in 2007.
Tarleton, who once worked as a transplant nurse, has undergone more than 50 surgeries since the attack, including work to restore some of her vision.
The latest surgery took 15 hours and included a team of more than 30 medical professionals. The lead surgeon, Bohdan Pomahac, called her injuries among the worst he's seen in his career.
"Carmen is a fighter," the doctor said Wednesday. "And fight she did."
Pomahac's team has performed five facial transplants at the hospital. He said the patient is recovering very well and is in great spirits as she works to get stronger.
He said she was very pleased when she saw her face for the first time, and that her appearance will not match that of the late donor's face.
"I think she looks amazing, but I'm biased," he said with a smile.
The donor's family wants to remain anonymous, but released a statement through a regional donor bank saying that her spirit would live on through Tarleton and three other organ recipients.
The estranged husband, Herbert Rodgers, pleaded guilty in 2009 in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.
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