NEW YORK — A team of surgeons at NYU Langone Health have performed the first whole-eye and partial face transplant in the world for a man in Arkansas.
Hospital officials said Aaron James, from Hot Springs, Arkansas, survived a 7,200-volt electric shock while he was working as a high-voltage lineman in June 2021. During the shock, his face accidentally touched a live wire. James had multiple reconstructive surgeries after sustaining extensive injuries, including the loss of his left eye, his dominant left arm above the below, his nose and lips, front teeth, left cheek area and his chin down to the bone.
James said he doesn’t remember any of the accident, CBS News reported.
“Aaron has been extremely motivated to regain the function and independence he lost after his injury. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect patient,” said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the transplant team, according to NYU Langone Health.
“We owe much of our success in this monumental endeavor to the exceptional institutional support we receive at NYU Langone and the unwavering dedication of our world-class team in delivering the highest level of care to our patient. This achievement demonstrates our capacity to embrace the most difficult challenges and drive continuous advancements in the field of transplantation and beyond.”
James received a procedure last May to transplant the entire left eye and part of the face from one donor with work from a team of over 140 surgeons. According to CNN, the procedure lasted around 21 hours.
The NYU team announced that James is recovering well and that his donated eye is healthy, according to The Associated Press.
“It feels good,” James told the AP. “I still don’t have any movement in it yet. My eyelid, I can’t blink yet. But I’m getting sensation now.”
Rodriguez, NYU’s plastic surgery chief, said that with the surgery, “We’re not claiming that we are going to restore sight,” according to the AP.
“But there’s no doubt in my mind we are one step closer,” he said.
Aaron James’ wife, Meagan James, told the AP, “In his mind and his heart, it’s him — so I didn’t care that, you know, he didn’t have a nose. But I did care that it bothered him.”
James served in the Army National Guard with tours in Egypt, Kuwait and Iraq, NYU Langone Health said, according to CBS News.