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Doctors say a 22-year-old man, badly burned in a car accident, is making a good recovery after receiving a rare face and hand transplant.
DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel after working the night shift. His car hit a sidewalk, flipped over and burst into flames.
A passing driver saw the accident pulled him out of the burning wreckage.
But the young man’s injuries were so severe that he was forced to spend months in a medically induced coma and undergo 20 reconstructive surgeries and multiple skin grafts to treat his extensive third-degree burns.
DiMeo’s parents, Rose and John, supported him during his ordeal. Photo: AP
Once it became clear that conventional surgeries couldn’t help him regain full vision or use of his hands, DiMeo’s medical team of more than 140 people began preparing for the risky transplant.
Doctors amputated both of Mr. DiMeo’s hands, replacing them in the middle of his forearm and connecting nerves, blood vessels and 21 tendons with hair-thin sutures.
They also transplanted a full face, including the forehead, eyebrows, nose, eyelids, lips, ears, and underlying facial bones.
You are now relearning how to smile, blink, pinch and squeeze.
DiMeo said: “They had to amputate my fingertips and they burned my face.
Mr. DiMeo can now exercise, feel the cold in his hands, and dress and feed himself. Photo: AP
“He had little slits in his eyes, so it was like looking through a woven fence.”
“I knew it would be baby steps all the time. You have to have a lot of motivation, a lot of patience.
“And you have to stay strong in everything.”
Experts say the surgery at New York University’s Langone Health Center appears to have been a success, but they warn it will take some time to say for sure.
Worldwide, surgeons have completed just 18 face transplants and 35 hand transplants.
Joe DiMeo plays pool with his father John at their home. Photo: AP
But simultaneous face and double hand transplants are extremely rare and have only been tried twice before.
The first attempt was in 2009 on a patient in Paris who died about a month later from complications.
Two years later, Boston doctors tried again with a woman who was mutilated by a chimpanzee, but had her transplanted hands removed days later.
Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who led the second attempt, said: “The fact that they were able to do it is phenomenal.
“I know firsthand that it is incredibly complicated. It is a tremendous success.”
DiMeo will be medication for life for transplants and will need ongoing rehabilitation to gain sensation and function in his new face and hands.
Doctors had estimated that he only had a 6% chance of finding a compatible match with his immune system. They also wanted to find someone with the same gender, skin tone, and hand control.
And the search for a suitable donor was also thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first surge in cases in New York City, members of the transplant unit were reassigned to work in coronavirus wards.
Eventually a donor was identified in Delaware and the 23-hour procedure was completed a few days later.
Dr. Eduardo Rodríguez, who led the medical team of more than 140 people, said: “The chance that we would be successful based on the track record seemed slim.
“It’s not like someone has done this many times before and we have a kind of schedule, a recipe to follow.”
Since leaving the hospital in November, DiMeo has been in intensive rehab, spending hours a day on physical, occupational and speech therapy.
“The rehab was pretty intense,” he said, and involves a lot of “retraining to do things on your own again.”
During a recent session, she practiced raising her eyebrows, opening and closing her eyes, pursing her mouth, raising her thumbs, and whistling.
Mr. DiMeo can feel his new forehead and his hands get cold. Now he can dress and feed himself.
He plays billiards and with his dog Buster.
Once an avid gym goer, he’s also working out again and practicing his golf swing.
“You have a new chance at life. You really can’t give up,” he said.
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