Alan Doherty looked at his new chin in the mirror yesterday and proudly declared: "It looks pretty damn good."
The 18-year-old's chin has already cost half a million dollars - and the job's not yet finished. Surgeons will carry out some final procedures next month and in August to contour the chin.
Alan arrived home in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, yesterday after his latest treatment in New York to remedy a jawbone infection. "I feel excellent," he said.
Alan was born with a rare condition called otofacial syndrome. His parents, Danny and Bernie Doherty, were told at birth that he was unlikely to survive. He had no chin and had to breathe through a tube in his throat.
He is one of just two people with the condition and he was the first person in the world to undergo a series of operations for a new chin.
Doctors agreed to carry out the surgery when Alan went to the world-famous Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York for assessment while in the United States in 2006 for an athletics event put on by the Physically Challenged Irish and American Youth Team.
Irish-American organiser Bill Broderick asked the teenager if there was anything he wanted and he replied: "A perfect chin." Within months, friends back home had raised $500,000 for the operations.
In the first operation in June, surgeons transplanted part of a hipbone to his back to "grow" the core of a new chin.
In October, he underwent a ground-breaking 17-hour operation when the bone was moved to his face and shaped into a chin.
Then came a setback when he had to miss out on Christmas and new year at home because the jaw infection was detected. The infection has cleared up and next month surgeons will transplant another piece of bone inside his left jaw.
Alan has missed out on school since October but he said yesterday that he was determined to sit his Junior Certificate in June.
"I've done a wee bit of study but I left the books behind when I went to America. I will be going back to school on Monday.
"I may have been born with no chin but I was born with determination and humour. I have never looked back since I asked Bill Broderick for a chin in summer 2006. He was shocked but he has seen me now and he thinks it is amazing," Alan said.
"I didn't care what I got for my birthday or Christmas. All I wanted was a chin."
His mother, who flew back from New York with Alan, said: "The doctors are very happy with his progress, but there is still a long road ahead, although he is probably over the worst now."