For 50 years, a woman in New York City lived without a jaw. She had upper teeth, a tongue, but no jaw. It made life quite difficult. But one day, an article about a jaw transplant in Europe give her a new goal -- and the surgery was remarkable.

Denise Egielski went public today with her new transplanted jaw which she received five weeks ago. A cystic deformity in childhood caused her jaw to be removed and left her with a misshapen lower face and difficulty with food, drink and sleep most of her life.

Dr. Alex Greenberg, Mt. Sinai Medical Center: "More recently ... her tongue would fall back into her throat."

Today, Denise, her husband and her doctors told about the remarkable transplant surgery.

Denise: "I can sleep now and I can concentrate..."

Denise's jaw area is swollen still, but the implanted jaw, which came from a cadaver donor -- a 15-year-old boy -- has given her a new life.

Dr. Eric Genden, Mt. Sinai Medical Center: "Now she can have implants placed so that she can actually bite and chew food, which she wasn't able to do prior to the surgery."

But the two surgeries were not easy for this wife, mother and children's book illustrator.

First, the donated jaw had to be implanted with Denise's own bone marrow and allowed to become live bone. Wrapped in one of her muscles, doctors surgically placed it under Denise's shoulder, where it stayed for eight months.

Dr. Genden: "Essentially, what makes this transplant unique is that it's not just donor bone ... it's a combination of donor bone with Denise's own bone marrow."

The new bone in her jaw, which is fed by her own bone marrow, should get beyond immune system rejection.

And implants on her new lower jaw will finish a perfect plan.

Denise: "When I get implants, I can't ask for anything more."