![]() ![]() "Rehab was pretty intense," DiMeo said, and involves a lot of "retraining yourself to do stuff on your own again."ĭuring a recent session, he practiced raising his eyebrows, opening and closing his eyes, puckering his mouth, giving a thumbs up and whistling. Since leaving the hospital in November, DiMeo has been in intense rehabilitation, devoting hours daily to physical, occupational and speech therapy. So far, DiMeo has not shown any signs of rejecting his new face or hands, said Rodriguez. "It's not that someone has done this many times before and we have a kind of a schedule, a recipe to follow." Defying the odds ![]() Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the medical team of more than 140 people. "The possibility of us being successful based on the track record looked slim," said Dr. They also transplanted a full face, including the forehead, eyebrows, nose, eyelids, lips, both ears and underlying facial bones. ![]() ![]() They amputated both of DiMeo's hands, replacing them mid-forearm and connecting nerves, blood vessels and 21 tendons with hair-thin sutures. In early August, the team finally identified a donor in Delaware and completed the 23-hour procedure a few days later. During New York City's surge, members of the transplant unit were reassigned to work in COVID-19 wards. Then during the search for a donor, the pandemic hit and organ donations plummeted. They also wanted to find someone with the same gender, skin tone and hand dominance. David Klassen, UNOS chief medical officer.Īlmost immediately, the NYU team encountered challenges including finding a donor.ĭoctors estimated he only had a 6% chance of finding a match compatible with his immune system. "Within the world of transplantation, they're probably the most unusual," said Dr. Once it became clear conventional surgeries could not help him regain full vision or use of his hands, DiMeo's medical team began preparing for the risky transplant in early 2019. Another driver who saw the accident pulled over to rescue DiMeo.Īfterward, he spent months in a medically induced coma and underwent 20 reconstructive surgeries and multiple skin grafts to treat his extensive third-degree burns. The car hit a curb and utility pole, flipped over, and burst into flames. In 2018, DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel, he said, after working a night shift as a product tester for a drug company. It's a tremendous success."ĭiMeo will be on lifelong medications to avoid rejecting the transplants, as well as continued rehabilitation to gain sensation and function in his new face and hands. "I know firsthand it's incredibly complicated. Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, who led the second such attempt. "The fact they could pull it off is phenomenal," said Dr. Two years later, Boston doctors tried it again on a woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee, but ultimately had to remove the transplanted hands days later. The first attempt was in 2009 on a patient in Paris who died about a month later from complications. But simultaneous face and double hand transplants are extremely rare and have only been tried twice before. ![]()
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