Norris underwent a 36-hour transplant surgery last year

Jun 29, 2013 09:44 GMT  ·  By

One year after undergoing the most extensive successful face transplant surgery in medical history, Richard Norris has got a new lease on life.

He is going out in public and he has gotten a lot of his old life back. According to the Inquisitr, he had been refusing to leave his home for the last 15 years, since a gunshot wound to the face shattered his skull.

As I informed you, he had accidentally inflicted the wound on himself by tinkering with his parents' shotguns when he was just 22 years old.

“I saw a miracle that was performed,” Norris said after undergoing the surgery in 2012.

NBC News has spoken to Norris and his family, who described that the 36-hour-surgery has changed all of their lives.

Norris is now fishing again, he has taken up following classes online, and he is also planning on writing a memoir.