Extremely rare face and hands transplant gives 22-year-old New Jersey man a new lease of life

A New
Jersey man, Joe DiMeo, who got a rare face and hands transplant in
August last year after being severely burned in a car accident two years ago, is now smiling again. Six months since the
transplant, he is trying to smile, blink, pinch and squeeze again.

Recently, DiMeo told the
Associated Press, “I knew it would be baby steps all the way. You’ve got to
have a lot of motivation, a lot of patience. And you’ve got to stay strong
through everything”. 

Also read: In a first, heart of brain dead man transported by Metro train in Hyderabad for transplant

However experts
have said that it seems NYU Langone Health was successful in conducting the
surgery but it will also take some time for them to be sure for this.

Dr. Bohdan
Pomahac, a surgeon at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who conducted the
second such transplant, said “The fact they could pull it off is
phenomenal. I know firsthand it’s incredibly complicated. It’s a tremendous
success”, reported CBS News.

Also read: Lifeline Indeed! Hyderabad Metro transports heart for transplant

A simultaneous face
and double hand transplant are very rare in medical history and have been
attempted only twice before. It
was attempted for the first time in 2009 on a patient in Paris who eventually
died a month later from complications. Second time, it was attempted two years
later by Boston doctors on a woman who was attacked by chimpanzee. However,
later she had to remove the transplanted hands.

DiMeo will also
be on lifetime medications to avoid rejecting the transplants along with
continued rehabilitation to obtain sensation and function in his new face and
hands, reported CBSNews.