{"id":4966,"date":"2023-11-14T21:31:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=4966"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:31:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:31:48","slug":"a-car-accident-left-him-with-burns-all-over-his-body-but-wait-until-you-see-him-after-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/used82.com\/?p=4966","title":{"rendered":"A Car Accident Left Him With Burns All Over His Body, But Wait Until You See Him After Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, 22-year-old Joe DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel after working a night shift. He drove the car into the curb, where it crashed and exploded. DiMeo would have died that day along the New Jersey highway if it were not for people who arrived at the scene of the crash and pulled the young man from the flames that had engulfed him. For two years, DiMeo suffered as he recovered from the debilitating car crash that left 80 percent of his body burned \u2013 until he qualified for the first-of-its-kind surgery to help him look better.<\/p>\n

<\/center>In August 2020, DiMeo went to Manhattan, where he underwent surgery at the NYU Langone Health Center. He was scheduled to be the first person to receive a double hand and face transplant, becoming the first person in the world to do so.<\/p>\n

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After the car wreck, which happened when DiMeo was nineteen-years-old, doctors put him into a medically induced coma for two months while they tried to help him recover. Since the day of the accident, he has undergone twenty surgeries as doctors tried to help him recover from the crash.<\/p>\n

Then the unthinkable happened. DiMeo was matched with a donor who could give him a new face and hands. They found the surgical match on August 9, 2020, after doctors had been forced to pause looking for a donor due to the pandemic. The donor\u2019s identity has remained anonymous, but the person who gave DiMeo another chance at life was located in Delaware.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Doctors feared that the double face and hand transplant might not work. They had worked through a six-percent chance of finding an eligible donor. Despite the odds, they found a match for DiMeo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/center>\u201cWe knew that it would be a needle in a haystack,\u201d Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the medical team, told Good Morning America. \u201cWe had to actually broaden our search beyond the state of New York, to the entire country, so every state in the country was actually looking for a donor for Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The double face and hand transplant required the expertise of sixteen surgeons. The procedure took twenty-three hours and included work from 80 staff members across six medical teams. They also used two operating rooms.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, DiMeo\u2019s doctors were finally ready to show the results. It had been six months since the surgery, so DiMeo appeared at a press conference where he said he was \u201cso grateful\u201d to have a new face and hands.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DiMeo appeared on Good Morning America to talk about his groundbreaking surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw my face for the first time, it didn\u2019t hit me. It didn\u2019t seem real at first,\u201d he said. \u201cThe swelling comes down every day. I see my cheekbones now.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/center>\"\"<\/p>\n

DiMeo also expressed his gratitude toward his donor\u2019s family and his desire to thank them in person one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful for them to give this gift to me \u2013 I don\u2019t know how to thank someone that gives you a second chance at life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

DiMeo\u2019s father, John, added, \u201cFrom the moment after the operation when we walked through that door\u2026 that\u2019s him now.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think about this groundbreaking transplant?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, 22-year-old Joe DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel after working a night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":36,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/used82.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}