Burn Victim Gets New Face And Hands In Miraculous Transplant Surgery

A Clark, New Jersey, man received a second chance at life thanks to a risky face and double hand transplant surgery following a car accident.

Joe DiMeo was coming home from work in July 2018 when he fell asleep at the wheel and hit a utility pole. His car flipped over and burst into flames, leaving burns on 80% of his body.

Despite several reconstructive surgeries, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez and experts at NYU Langone Health realized the only way for DiMeo, 22, to regain full vision and use of his hands was to go through with a risky face and double hand transplant surgery.

Doctors began preparing for the surgery in 2019 even though there was only a 6% chance of finding a compatible match with DiMeo’s immune system.

Although there have been an estimated 35 hand transplants and 18 face transplants performed, doctors have never successfully performed simultaneous face and double hand transplants, CBS News reports.

The procedure has only been done twice, once in 2009 on a Paris patient who died from post-op complications and in 2011 on a woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee. However, in the latter case, the transplanted hands had to be removed from the patient days after the surgery in Boston.

There are a number of issues that could go wrong when performing the transplants such as the patient’s body rejecting the transplant, vascular failure from reconnecting the blood vessels, or infections, People reports.

On the day DiMeo received his transplant last August, he had no doubts in his mind about going through with the surgery.

“I was clear-headed that morning. It was like, 5:30 a.m., and Dr. Rodriguez came up to ask if was worried or wanted to back out, and I actually said, ‘Let’s do it now.’ And he said, 'Well, we have to wait for the other doctors,’” DiMeo explained.

The surgery, which used both hands and the full face of a single donor, took 23 hours and was “historically” fast compared to past attempts, which took up to 25 hours. DiMeo woke up from his surgery days later and soon began physical therapy.

Dr. Rodriguez revealed he is pleased with his team’s work completing the first successful face and double hand transplant surgery in the world during a pandemic.

“When we completed this operation and I looked at Joe with a new face and two arms and they look perfect, I was so proud of this team that came together, and even more so through this great health crisis that none of us have ever experienced, and we pulled it off,” he said.

It has been five months since DiMeo’s transplant, and he is “way ahead” of schedule with the use of his new hands. Doctors continue to monitor DiMeo for any issues, but so far, he has only improved over time.