Disfigured Vermont Mother Receives Face Transplant at Hospital in Boston (VIDEO)

After a lye attack left a Vermont mother legally blind and disfigured, a face transplant at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston will give her a much needed new outlook on life.

Carmen Balndin Tarleton, a registered nurse and mother of two from Thetford, Vt., was injured in 2007 when her estranged husband broke into her home and attacked her with both a baseball bat and doused her body with industrial strength lye, leaving more than 80 percent of Tarleton's body burned and putting her into a three week coma.

After euduring 55 surgeries for the burns, she was still unable to return to her original state.

"Despite our best efforts, Carmen was left severely disfigured and in constant pain. She would drool almost constantly," Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, the director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women's Hospital, told reporters.

Pomahac spent 15 hours leading a surgical team of more than 30 members as they carefully transplanted facial skin, including the neck, nose, lips, facial muscles, arteries and nerves of the donor. Pomahac estimated that Tarleton would regain 75 to 80 percent of facial movement and would slowly regain feeling and motor functions in her face during the next six months to a year, according to ABCNews.com. 

History shows that this is the fifth face transplant performed at this hospital.

"I am so grateful for all that have been watching over me with such tenderness and loving care. 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 in a blog post on Wednesday.

More than 20 people have received a face transplant worldwide, since the first successful face transplant was performed in 2005.

Want to learn more about face transplants? Check out a video of the 23rd face transplant, courtesy of YouTube.