You sewed what to my face?

April 18, 2009 5:17 AM

My sister claims she once saw a movie from the 70's about a woman whose mouth was disfigured in an accident and the plastic surgeon basically transplanted her vaginal lips to her face. Is this a real movie or is my sister pulling my leg? My Google-fu and IMDB-fu has failed me big time.
posted by cropshy to media & arts (12 comments total)

I seem to recall that, too... but it wasn't the entire labia... just mucosa tissue.

Apparently the accident was severe enough to disguise her gender to the rescuers and bystanders...

Anyway, that's all I remember. You have some reinforcement.
posted by FauxScot at 5:21 AM on April 18

I remember that too. Maybe a movie of the week type movie. I seem to remeber she was in an accident and it was military doctors? Was it Lindsay Wagner. I think maybe it was supposed to be true.
posted by beccaj at 5:37 AM on April 18

I think it was from the 80's at least. It was labia tissue that they used to reconstruct her lips because that way there wouldn't be hair growing on them.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:43 AM on April 18

I feel like I read this story in a Reader's Digest in the early 90s, but no searching is coming useful.
posted by Night_owl at 7:26 AM on April 18

I saw this, too. She ended up marrying her surgeon. And it was a true story, IIRC.
posted by mdiskin at 7:30 AM on April 18

Oh, I think it was "Why Me?" from 1984.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:39 AM on April 18 [1 favorite]

"In the course of the reconstruction, the doctor and the nurse must overcome several obstacles. These range from the personal, where the nurse wonders if the doctor is only doing this for his own fame, to the bureaucracy, which has problems with the use of labial tissue from the vaginal area to reconstruct the nurse's lips."
posted by unknowncommand at 7:40 AM on April 18

You are thinking of Why Me?.
posted by biscotti at 7:41 AM on April 18

Curses! Beaten to it while I found the link!
posted by biscotti at 7:42 AM on April 18

Here's a little more info on her, and on him.
posted by marsha56 at 7:50 AM on April 18

There was also a Nip/Tuck episode that stole this premise.
posted by shinynewnick at 8:03 AM on April 18 [1 favorite]

Thanks all. I was beginning to think this movie didn't exist. My sister will be glad also since I can stop teasing her about it.
posted by cropshy at 8:36 AM on April 18