Blind Michigan woman, 24, who was shot in face by stepdad before he killed her mom and turned gun on himself finally gets nose reconstruction 6 years later

A Michigan woman whose face was 'pulverized' after her stepdad shot her has received a new nose reconstructed from her own rib cage bone. 

Amedy Dewey, 24, was left legally blind and with severe facial injuries when her stepfather shot her in the face, killed her mother before finally turning the gun on himself in a vicious January 2018 attack. 

Dewey, who has already suffered through 20 surgeries following the shooting, finally received a new nose to replace the one she lost. 

A six-hour surgery, including removing a six centimeter section of bone from her rib cage, allowed surgeons to reconstruct a nose for Dewey using a technique developed during the First World War.  

Amedy Dewey, 24, was left legally blind and disfigured when her stepfather shot her in the face in 2018 

She has aspirations to train as a trauma therapist and to work on domestic violence advocacy

Dewey, pictured before the attack, is now legally blind and has needed 20 surgeries to her face

Dave and Lisa Somers, were both found shot dead by their car in Lowell, Michigan, on January 6 2018 

On the way to the surgery Dewey and her aunt stopped at a gas station and a little girl asked her why she did not have an eye. 

Dewey told the child that it had had to be removed after a 'very bad man hurt me', she recalled to USA Today. 

'I have family members that are scared of me' Dewey told the outlet.

'When I get little kids that don't know me at all, and they go and do that, it makes me feel like I'm a human being again, not this object that they're staring at.' 

Surgeons at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, led by craniofacial specialist plastic surgeon Dr. Christian Vercler, removed the rib bone, chiseled it down before inserting the bone under Dewey's skin and wiring into place. 

Vercler, who has performed many of Dewey's other surgeries, told USA Today that repairing a face from a gunshot wound involved improvisation rather than following a step-by-step plan in a more standard procedure. 

Vercler had previously used bone from Dewey's rib cage to reconstruct part of her cheek bone that had been blown away by the bullet wound. 

The technique was created during the First World War by Dr. Harold Gillies, the father of modern plastic surgery. 

'He's pretty famous for pioneering a lot of facial reconstruction techniques,' Vercler told USA Today.

The shotgun wound left Dewey with severe facial injuries 

Surgeons at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, led by craniofacial specialist plastic surgeon Dr. Christian Vercler (pictured center) reconstructed a nose for Dewey 

Dewey took her mother's cuddly toy with her to the surgery in Ann Arbor 

The surgery took nearly six hours, much longer than the initially projected three, but Vercler was happy with the results

'You can imagine, in World War I, with the trench warfare, a lot of these guys, if they didn't get killed from a blast to their faces, as they came up over the trench, they were devastated. 

'And so they would ship them all back from (the) eastern front to England, and Gillies would make up ways to reconstruct their faces.'

Adding: 'It's all about understanding the anatomy and how you can move parts.' 

'It's all about understanding the anatomy and how you can move parts,' Vercler said. 'That's sort of been a principle that's been around for a long time.'

The surgery took nearly six hours, much longer than the initially projected three, but Vercler was happy with the results. 

'Everything went really well, you know, challenging as always,' he said.

'I think it's big, but nobody else does,'Dewey told the outlet a couple of weeks after the surgery.

'It's just a me thing. I haven't hadn't had a nose in five years' she explained. 

Dewey, 24, with her boyfriend, Charles Austin, 21, at her home in Scottville earlier this year

Dewey now with her grandmother and is studying at community college

Dewey told USA Today that her stepfather was often violent and reached for his gun when angry 

Dewey hugs her father Robert Dewey, 47, before her nose reconstruction surgery 

Dewey now lives in Luddington with her grandmother where she is studying at community college. 

She has aspirations to train as a trauma therapist and to work on domestic violence advocacy. 

'I am a survivor,' she told the broadcaster. 'What I went through, I don't want people to go through that. 

'And especially teenagers and young women who feel like they don't have a voice' she said. 

'People need to realize that he was showing signs before any of this even happened,' she explained.

'I want people to see this and hear this and be like, holy c**p, I'm in a similar situation.'

Dave and Lisa Somers, both 51, were found shot dead near their car on Interstate-96 near Lowell, Michigan, on January 6 2018. 

Dewey, just eighteen at the time, was shot in the face by Somers, but miraculously survived. 

The couple married in 2013 after meeting through a county-wide adult softball team. 

Lisa had three children from prior relationships, her daughter Amedy and two sons, Adam and Dylan Helminiak. She accused her husband of having an affair - which allegedly caused the argument that resulted in their deaths. 

Dewey told USA Today that her stepfather was often violent and reached for his gun when angry. 

Almost two-thirds of intimate partner homicides in the US involve a gun, according to data from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.