22-year-old man gets world’s first face and hands transplant
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The world’s first face and hands transplant
In July 2018, Joe DiMeo got into a car accident in New Jersey, US. He survived but got very badly injured, losing his eyelids, ears and fingers. He was in the hospital for 4 months and thought he had lost his independence forever.
On Wednesday, doctors at NYU Langone Medical Center announced that Joe is the recipient of the world’s first successful face and hands transplant.
The operation actually happened in August 2020. But the doctors wanted to wait and see if it would be successful before announcing it.
The world’s first face and hands transplant
The operation took 80 people across six surgical teams, two operating rooms and 23 hours to complete. They took face and hand tissue from a donor who was dying and attached that to Joe. It was a very dangerous operation but it succeeded.
This type of surgery (trying to transplant both the face and hands) have been tried only twice before. But they were not successful.
Since then, Joe has been recovering slowly. But he is very motivated and said, “You never give up”.
See a video of Joe’s inspirational story of receiving the world’s first face and hands transplant below.
Video credit: NYU Langone Health/Youtube
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