⚡️🏥 WATCH: This face was separated from its donor (a woman who died of an overdose) after 16 hours of transplant surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The surgeons who removed it, observe, pausing before transplanting it, a task in which they would spend another 15 hours "attaching" the face to Katie Stubblefield, the youngest patient in North America to undergo such a transplant.

This human face, suspended between its donor and recipient, is a reminder of the profound connection between face and identity.

This image was selected as one of Nat Geo's 21 most attractive images of the 21st century.