During New York City's surge, members of the transplant unit were reassigned to work in COVID-19 wards. Then during the search for a donor, the pandemic hit and organ donations plummeted. They also wanted to find someone with the same gender, skin tone and hand dominance. David Klassen, UNOS chief medical officer.Īlmost immediately, the NYU team encountered challenges including finding a donor.ĭoctors estimated he only had a 6% chance of finding a match compatible with his immune system.
"Within the world of transplantation, they're probably the most unusual," said Dr. 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.
#Joe demeo driver#
Another driver who saw the accident pulled over to rescue DiMeo.Īfterward, he spent months in a medically induced coma and underwent 20 reconstructive surgeries and multiple skin grafts to treat his extensive third-degree burns. The car hit a curb and utility pole, flipped over, and burst into flames. In 2018, DiMeo fell asleep at the wheel, he said, after working a night shift as a product tester for a drug company. It's a tremendous success."ĭiMeo 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. "I know firsthand it's incredibly complicated.
Bohdan Pomahac, a surgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, who led the second such attempt. "The fact they could pull it off is phenomenal," said Dr. 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. The first attempt was in 2009 on a patient in Paris who died about a month later from complications. But simultaneous face and double hand transplants are extremely rare and have only been tried twice before.
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