Doctors announce world’s first successful face and hand transplant

Joe DiMeo, 22, is the first person in the world to have a successful face and hand transplant, Report informs, referring to NBC News.

Worldwide, surgeons have completed at least 18 face transplants and 35 hand transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, which oversees the US transplant system.

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 it again on a woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee but ultimately had to remove the transplanted hands days later.

DiMeo from New Jersey 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.

In 2018, DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel, he said, after working a night shift as a product tester for a drug company. The car hit a curb and a utility pole, flipped over and burst into flames. Another driver who saw the accident pulled over to rescue DiMeo.

Afterward, he spent months in a medically induced coma and underwent 20 reconstructive surgeries and multiple skin grafts to treat his extensive third-degree burns.

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.

Doctors estimated he only had a 6 percent chance of finding a match compatible with his immune system. They also wanted to find someone with the same gender, skin tone and hand dominance.

DiMeo, who lives with his parents, can now dress and feed himself. He shoots pool and plays with his dog, Buster. Once an avid gym-goer, DiMeo is also working out again — benching 50 pounds and practicing his golf swing.