This is a first in the history of simultaneous transplants.
A young road accident victim, who received a new face and new hands, is doing well and has regained the use of his hands five months after the operation.
At a press conference on February 3 from New York University Hospital NYU where the transplants were performed, Joe DiMeo, 22, said he was in perfect health.
" I'm pretty good.
I can do a lot of things, like sometimes opening a water bottle.
On a daily basis, I do rehabilitation, sometimes not.
And when I don't have physical rehabilitation, I just exercise.
This operation gives me a second chance at life.
I can't wait to get back to work ”.
Several dozen face and hand transplants have already been performed separately, but the two previous known simultaneous transplants have ended in failure.
The first patient in the world to receive a triple transplant, in Créteil in April 2009, died of complications two months later.
In the case of Joe DiMeo, originally from New Jersey, the 23-hour operation performed on August 12 did not present any complications.
Victim of a swerve after falling asleep at the wheel of his vehicle in July 2018, he had been burned in the third degree on 80% of the surface of his body, including losing lips and eyelids.
During the approximately 20 operations carried out thereafter, the surgeons had also amputated several phalanges.
But even after this series of interventions, "the only possibility that he would regain a good quality of life was to consider a face and hand transplant," explained Eduardo Rodriguez, surgeon and project manager.
According to analyzes from NYU Langone Hospital, the patient, with an immune system weakened by transfusions and skin grafts already carried out, risked rejection with 94% of donors.
But with the help of a local association, Gift of Life, a compatible deceased donor has been identified.
The operation, which had been repeated a dozen times, required six different surgical teams and nearly 100 people in total.
The surgeons cut out the donor's face and removed several bony parts of the skull, cheekbones, nose and chin to ensure satisfactory alignment on Joe DiMeo's face.
Released from the hospital after several months of convalescence, the young man can already do practically any gesture with his new hands, even if the lack of sensations still handicaps him.