|
 DiMeo is still getting used to his hands and face. He has had them
for less than six months, the product of breakthrough surgery after
a fiery accident left stumps where is fingers used to be and his old
face severely disfigured.
"You know, it's really surprising to me when something new touches
it or I touch something new and I can feel it for the first time,"
he said in an interview.
As he pushes himself through hours a day of rehab, DiMeo said he is
driven by the goal of moving out of his parents' home in Clark
Township, New Jersey, and even getting behind the wheel of a car
again.
"Driving is the biggest goal I have so far," he said.
It was driving that started his nightmare.
Coming home from his night-shift job as a product tester on July 14,
2018, DiMeo's car crashed, rolled over and exploded, leaving him
with third-degree burns over 80% of his body.
He spent four months in the burn unit at Saint Barnabas Medical
Center in Livingston, New Jersey, part of the time in an induced
coma, and endured some 20 reconstructive surgeries that still left
him with only limited use of his hands and face.
Lucky to be alive, DiMeo was referred in March 2019 to Dr. Eduardo
Rodriguez, who heads the plastic surgery department at NYU Langone
Health and had already performed three successful face transplants.
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 On Aug. 12, Rodriguez led a
team of more than 140 surgeons, nurses and other
staff in a 23-hour procedure that gave DiMeo a
new face and pair of hands in the first such
double transplant ever performed.
"We wanted to give him not only an operation
that made him look better, but it ultimately had
to work ideally, especially with the hands,"
Rodriguez said.
DiMeo's recovery is still a work in progress
with up to five hours of rehab a day, but
Rodriguez said his patient is doing amazingly
well.
"It's a testament to him as an individual, his
commitment to his therapy and his willingness to
not give up," Rodriguez said.
DiMeo marks his progress by reflecting on the
things he is now able to do now, like fixing his
own breakfast and doing his workouts by himself.
But he is not slowing down.
"I see myself, you know? It's coming back really
fast ... It's me now," he said. "You just got to
roll with the punches, whatever life throws at
you."
(Reporting by Dan Fastenberg; Writing by Peter
Szekely; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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