A man who became the recipient of the first successful face and hands transplant once spoke out about the horrific car crash, which resulted in him getting the procedure.
Joe DiMeo suffered life changing injuries six years ago in a car crash, which occurred after he fell asleep at the wheel of his car, while driving home after a night shift in July 2018.
His Dodge Challenger hit a curb, flipped over and burst into flames during the crash and the man suffered his injuries before people could get to him and rescue him from the burning car.
He was left with serious burns over much of his body, but in August 2020 he survived a face and double hand transplant after 23 hours of surgery in New York where he had been given a slim chance of survival.
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Joe said he was 'ready for the transplant when it was offered to me' as he 'didn't want to live how I was living'.
Speaking about the car crash, Joe said: "My car veered off the side of the road, hit a curb, flipped a couple of times and then caught on fire.
"I had a mod that scraped the curb which created a spark and then the oil pan cracked in the impact and then they just created a flame.
"I was 80 percent burnt. They had to amputate my fingertips to the second knuckle and then they had to suture my eyelids because they were burned. It was like looking out of a chain link fence."
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He added that his recovery afterwards was 'super difficult' and for the first two weeks he couldn't even move his fingers, instead hospital staff would have to move them for him to get the muscle memory working.
After the accident, he said he 'lost a lot of fake friends' but also learned who he could really count on, saying that 'you realise who your real friends are and you appreciate them more'.
Joe knows that his donor was a 48-year-old stroke victim who had died two days before his surgery, and since then there have been some major milestones in his life.
He ended up being contacted over social media by a woman named Jessica Koby and they soon bonded over their love of dogs.
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Things between the two of them appear to be going very well because they both recently posted news that they'd got engaged to one another, with Joe saying there were 'big things going down on December 5th', and Koby writing that 'I guess I’m the right one Joe asked and I said yes'.
She also said she 'can't wait to get married', so it seems like it's exciting times ahead for Joe and Jessica.
Topics: Health, US News, Sex and Relationships, Mental Health
Joe Harker