A year after undergoing his first eye and partial face transplant, Aaron James is finding beauty in everyday life.
He can finally appreciate solids again – smelling is a simple pleasure – and he doesn’t wince when he looks in the mirror. And while most people hate the DMV, James happily traded in his driver’s license that bore his horrific injuries to show off his amazing transformation.
“I’ve been given the gift of a second chance and I don’t take a single moment for granted,” James, 47, reflected in a statement to The Post.
The Arkansas utility lineman lost his left eye, left eyelid, nose, lips and a large amount of facial tissue when his face grazed a 7,200-volt wire in a horrific 2021 work accident.
An Army National Guard veteran, James woke up in a hospital six weeks later with an empty socket where his left eye was, a nose for a nose and a hole that barely resembled a mouth.
Doctors amputated his left arm above the elbow, fitted him with a prosthesis and taught him how to walk again.
Then, in May 2023, surgeons at NYU Langone Health made history when they replaced James’ left eye and half of his face, which he received from a donor in his 30s who had been declared brain dead.
A study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals how James is faring after the groundbreaking 21-hour operation, which is the first human eye transplant and the only successful combined transplant of its kind.
“The results we are seeing after this procedure are quite incredible and may pave the way for new clinical protocols and inspire further research into complex transplants involving critical sensory organs,” said Dr. Vaidehi S. Dedania, an ophthalmologist and James retina specialist in the Department of Ophthalmology at NYU Langone.
Not all the news is good – James still can’t see out of the transplanted eye, and the surgical team reports that damage to the optic nerve during recovery has resulted in some loss of retinal tissue.
But the eye has maintained normal pressure and good blood flow. Tests also show that the rods and cones – the photoreceptors in the retina that are responsible for vision – survived the transplant.
There is hope that future whole-eye transplants could restore sight.
“We have done the work to transplant an eye. Now we need to work harder to understand how to restore sight to the eye,” said Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, who led the 140-person team that collaborated on James’ procedure.
“Our discoveries over the past year mark promising initial results, laying a foundation for further advances and ongoing research,” added Rodriguez, director of the Facial Transplant Program at NYU Langone. “We are truly amazed by Aaron’s recovery.”
James is honored to be “patient zero.”
“Even if I can’t see with my new eye, I’ve regained my quality of life and I know this is a step forward in helping future patients,” he said.
Now he and his wife of nearly 21 years, Meagan, are preparing for another milestone — sending their daughter, Allie, off to college.
“I’m pretty much back to being a normal guy, doing normal things,” James admitted cheerfully.
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Image Source : nypost.com