DiMeo Joe (Joe DiMeo)

DiMeo Joe (Joe DiMeo)

Biography

2020: Face and hand transplants

American Joe DiMeo (Joe DiMeo) became the first person in the world to successfully undergo the most complex surgical operation to simultaneously transplant the face and both hands. His life is described in the material published at the end of January 2026.

In 2018, DiMeo, returning early in the morning from work after a night shift, fell asleep at the wheel of his Dodge Challenger. The car crashed into a curb, overturned and caught fire. The young man received burns to 80% of his body and spent more than three months in a coma. After several more weeks in the burn unit, he was transferred to a rehabilitation center for burn patients. He then returned to his parents' home where, in his own words, he "felt like a 20-year-old."

Mom cooked and cleaned, and I was just lying on the couch. That kind of life wasn't for me, "DiMeo recalls.

In 2019, the young man met with surgeon Eduardo D. Rodriguez from the Langone Medical Center at the University of New York. The doctor considered that DiMeo could become a suitable candidate for transplantation of the face and both hands, despite the fact that both knew about the high risks of such surgery. The two previous such attempts ended in failures.

The operation itself took place in August 2020, when DiMeo was 22 years old. The most complex procedure lasted 23 hours, more than 140 medical workers participated in it. Hands and face were taken from a 47-year-old donor. After that, the young man underwent a long rehabilitation.

Shortly after the operation, DiMeo met the woman who would become his wife. A girl named Jessica learned about him from one of her faculty members at a medical college, and later watched a documentary about his transplant. The couple for a long time maintained relations at a distance, and in December 2024 secretly married in Hawaii.^[1]

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