surgery
Cody Medina
Cody Medina
February 6, 2021 ·  4 min read

World’s first face and hands transplant gives man a second chance at life

Medical technology has come a very long way in terms of skin grafts and transplants. These kinds of medical procedures involve painstakingly long hours to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. It takes patience, effort, skill, and multiple doctors and nurses. Transplants and skin grafts are life changing procedures, especially for burn victims. One of these victims is Joe Dimeo, and he is the first person to receive a face and hands transplant at the same time.

Face And Hands Transplant

The unfortunate story of Joe Dimeo dates back to 2018. He was 20 years old at the time and was on a late-night driving through Route 22 in New Jersey. Unfortunately, Dimeo fell asleep at the wheel, which resulted in a horrible car crash. As he lost control, his car flipped over after hitting the curb, and it proceeded to burst into flames.

Luckily, a bystander quickly rushed to Dimeo’s aid, pulling him out of the wreckage just in time before the car completely exploded. Sadly, Dimeo’s body suffered from third-degree burns on over 80% of his body. The burns were so great that his eye’s melded shut; he lost his ears, nose, and even parts of his hands. This left him in a dire state of existence.

Dimeo was rushed to the hospital and put in a medically induced coma for two and a half months. Doctors were already planning how to save him. 3 years later, Dimeo was a promising candidate to be the first patient to receive a face and hands transplant. However, this wasn’t going to be easy. On top of the risks associated with the procedure, finding a viable donor would be challenging.

Dimeo’s doctor, Eduardo Rodriguez, explains that he only had a 6% chance of identifying a donor. This is due to all of the blood transfusions on top of the skin grafts he’s already been given during surgery. This led to a nationwide search for a donor that resulted in a single person match that gave him both a face and hands transplant.

The Process

We needed to avoid infection, we needed to have this operation occur as fast as possible, we had to be very selective with the donor, and we had to implement every state of the art technology that would ensure complete success of Joe’s operation, and that’s exactly what we did.” Explains Dr. Rodriguez on the operation and health of Dimeo. (1)

Before going into the surgery, Dr. Rodriguez explained how resilient Dimeo is. “He’s the most highly motivated patient I’ve ever met. There have been over a hundred hand transplants performed successfully, and close to 50 face transplants,” Rodriguez continues to explain. “So fundamentally there was no reason why they couldn’t occur together, successfully.” (1)

Dimeo’s surgery required a team of 16 surgeons and a 23-hour long surgery. To give you an idea of how tedious and strategic this procedure was, in total, the operation took 80 people across six surgical teams and two adjoining operating rooms. This resulted in a major success as Dimeo was recovering ahead of schedule. He was already back to driving his car, exercising, eating food, and smiling for the first time in almost 3 years. The amount of unwavering motivation that he has was tantamount to this operation.

The Road To Recovery

Dimeo’s motivation to recover was tremendous. However, the road to recovery is going to be a very long journey for him. After the surgery was complete, Dimeo still has to go through Forty-five days in intensive care, followed by nearly two inpatient rehab months.

Joe is healthy, he’s young, he’s strong, he loves to exercise, he eats healthy, and he had that one special element which is going to be required for this operation,” Rodriguez further explains. “A high level of motivation. And he had a tremendous sense of hope.” (1)

Even after all of this, Dimeo recognizes the great sacrifices made to make this a reality for him. He was finally able to write down a few words when he was recovered enough to do so.

I want to share my story to give people hope in the world,” Dimeo begins to say. ” I’d like to recognize the selflessness of my donor and how none of this would be possible without his sacrifice. Thank you.” Fully aware that this was truly a second chance at life and that he is certainly not going to waste it. He says he’s practicing using his hands and happy that he can finally blink again. Ending his speech with “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel. You never give up.

Keep Reading: A Doctor Built a Machine That Helps People Die

References

  1. World’s first face and hands transplant gives New Jersey man a second chance at life.” CNN. Evan Simko-Bednarski. February 3, 2021.
  2. Comprehensive Transplant Center.” Hopkins.