- Hopefully Dimeo is one of many successful surgeries of this kind!
If you didn’t read the first part of this story, you can here Man Receives First Successful Hands and Face Transplant: Part One
“We always begin the operation with a moment of silence to honor the donor family, to respect their great loss, to never forget the donations that have been made,” Rodriguez said. “In all these operations it’s important to recognize that someone must give up their life so that others can continue living.”
According to Rodriguez, the hands and face transplant operation could have easily ended Dimeo’s life if not done correctly. The radius on each arm and the ulna bone were carefully cut out, along with tendons, muscles, veins and nerves, to prepare his body for the new limbs. They did his dominant hand, his right hand first, and then the left.
“We have to replace 21 tendons, three major nerves, five major vessels, two major bones,” Rodriguez said of each hand. Each structure had to be labeled, he added, to ensure proper reassembly.
They removed Dimeo’s face and put small plates on his chin to assist in attaching his new face. They grafted the bridge of the donor’s nose in place of his own. By splicing vasculature and nerves together, they bring blood and eventually feeling to the tissue.
The final stitch for the hands and face transplant surgery came after 23 hours. Following the surgery, Dimeo spent 45 days in the intensive care unit and then nearly two months of inpatient rehab.
He had to learn to open is new eyelids, and to move his new hands, and to smile. “I want to share my story to give people hope in the world,” he said.
“I’d like to recognize the selflessness of my donor, and how none of this would be possible without his sacrifice,” Dimeo said. “Thank you.”
Asked how he’s felt over the past few months of rehabilitation, Dimeo said he felt he’d been given a “second chance at life.”
“There’s no excuse to not be motivated, or not to do my therapy,” he said
“My hands aren’t there yet. I have to keep practicing,” he added.
“It’s kind of like when you’re a baby, they’re just moving their hands all the time until they get that ability to do stuff. I’ve got new hands now, just like them,” he said.
“There’s always light at the end of the tunnel,” Dimeo said. “You never give up.”