Joe Dimeo, the 22-year-old, who received a triple face and both hand transplant.

-

NYU Langone Health / AFP

Doctors at New York University Hospital NYU performed a triple face and two hand transplant in mid-August on a young road accident victim, who is in good health and has regained the use of his hands. a first, announced the establishment on Wednesday.

Dozens of face and hand transplants have already been performed separately, but the previous two known simultaneous transplants have ended in failure.

In April 2009, in Créteil, the first patient to receive a triple transplant had died of complications two months later.

A rejection with 94% of donors

In the case of Joe DiMeo, a 22-year-old from New Jersey, the 11 p.m. operation performed on August 12 did not present any complications and the patient, who attended a press conference on Wednesday, is in healthy.

The operation "gives me a second chance at life," explained Joe DiMeo.

“I can't wait to get back to work.

»Victim of a lurch 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, losing in particular 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 Dr Eduardo Rodriguez, in charge of the project, during a presentation. virtual press conference.

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 risk of rejection always present

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 all" the gestures with his new hands, he explained, even if the lack of sensations still handicaps him.

As for the face, "as soon as I saw it for the first time, I said to myself: it's my face now," explained the one who was a tester for a pharmaceutical laboratory before his accident.

Although most face and hand transplant patients experience graft rejection within three months of the operation, which Joe DiMeo did not, “there is no guarantee that he does not reject ”.

In addition to immunosuppressive therapy, it is important that the patient does not receive shock to the transplanted parts, Professor Rodriguez said, as a hematoma or sore could cause rejection.

Health

Lyon: "His hands have become mine", 20 years after the first transplant of both hands, patients testify

Society

The stages which now await Felix Gretarsson, the first man to have his arms and shoulders transplanted

  • new York

  • Face

  • Medicine

  • Health

  • United States

  • Surgery

  • Graft

  • Hand