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By Dan Fastenberg
NEW YORK (Reuters) – At 22, Joe DiMeo rediscovers a range of sensations on his hands and face, from warmth to coolness, and humidity to the touch of another person.
DiMeo is still getting used to his hands and face. He has had them for less than six months, the product of revolutionary surgery after a fire accident that left stumps where his fingers were and his severely disfigured old face.
“You know, it’s really surprising to me when something new touches him or I touch something new and I can feel it for the first time,” he said in an interview.
As he spends hours a day in rehab, DiMeo said he was motivated by the goal of leaving his parents’ house in Clark Township, New Jersey, and even getting behind the wheel of a car. .
“Driving is my biggest goal so far,” he said.
It was driving that started his nightmare.
Upon returning from his night shift as a product tester on July 14, 2018, DiMeo’s car crashed, overturned and exploded, leaving him with third degree burns to 80% of his body.
He spent four months in the burns unit at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, part of the time in an induced coma, and underwent about 20 reconstructive surgeries which have always left him with limited use. with his hands and his face.
Lucky to be alive, DiMeo was referred in March 2019 to Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who heads the plastic surgery department at NYU Langone Health and had already performed three successful face transplants.
On August 12, Rodriguez led a team of more than 140 surgeons, nurses and other staff in a 23-hour procedure that gave DiMeo a new face and a new pair of hands in the first such double transplant. never carried out.
“We wanted to not only give it an operation that makes it look better, but it ultimately needed to work ideally, especially with the hands,” Rodriguez said.
DiMeo’s recovery is still a work in progress with up to five hours of rehabilitation per day, but Rodriguez said his patient is doing incredibly well.
“It’s a testament to him as an individual, his commitment to his therapy and his willingness to not give up,” Rodriguez said.
DiMeo marks his progress by thinking about things he is now able to do now, like making his own breakfast and doing his workouts on his own. But he’s not slowing down.
“I see myself, you know? It comes back very quickly … It’s me now,” he said. “You just have to take the punches no matter what life throws at you.”
(Reporting by Dan Fastenberg; Writing by Peter Szekely; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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