Suicide attempt survivor receives innovative face transplant: ‘It was just a miracle’ – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

On November 20, 2024By Pranco

(CNN) — Derek Pfaff remembers being under a lot of stress during his studies. He remembers coming home from school during spring break in March 2014. But he doesn’t remember the night that changed his life forever.

“I don’t remember anything,” said Pfaff, of Harbor Beach, Michigan. “I don’t remember getting the gun, going outside, shooting myself or the weeks afterward.”

It was shortly after 1:30 a.m. when his father, Jerry Pfaff, noticed the family gun cabinet was open. He searched the area around the house and found his son lying in a snowbank next to the garage.

Derek Pfaff was rushed to the hospital. When he finally regained consciousness and lay in a hospital bed, he thought he had been in a car accident.

His face was seriously damaged by the gunshot wound from his suicide attempt. He lost his nose, his lips, his teeth and parts of his forehead, affecting his ability to breathe, chew, swallow, smile or blink.

In the years that followed, Pfaff underwent 58 facial reconstructive surgeries. They helped, but he was still missing a nose, his upper and lower jaws, teeth, his eyelids and part of his frontal bone. He could not chew or talk easily.

“There was still a lot of work to be done, and there was really nothing more that that hospital or facility could do for him,” said his mother, Lisa Pfaff.

At the time, a doctor told her: “The only option for Derek is a face transplant.”

Pfaff, 30, is now one of only a few dozen people in the world to have successfully undergone a life-changing face transplant. Being among them Aaron James, who received the world’s first full eye and partial face transplantAnd Katie Stubblefield, the youngest person to receive a face transplant in the United States.

Mayo Clinic, where Pfaff’s surgery was completed, performed his first face transplant in 2016.

“There have been several patients in the United States who have undergone face transplants, and more than 50 around the world, and each of these patients is different. There is no injury that is the same,” says Dr. Samir Mardini, chairman of plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic, who serves as facial reconstructive and facial resuscitation surgeon and surgical director of Mayo Clinic’s Reconstructive Transplant Program. Mardini led Pfaff’s operation.

When you “look at a defect – the structure you’re missing, the function you’re missing – they’re never the same,” he said. “So every face transplant that is taking place today is innovative and has something unique about it.”

‘It’s a life-giving procedure’

Pfaff’s 50-plus-hour transplant surgery was performed in February at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, involving a team of at least 80 healthcare professionals.

The team surgically removed a donor’s face and then surgically implanted the donor tissue into Pfaff to restore his facial structure and functions. About 85% of his face was reconstructed and replaced with donor tissue, Mardini said.

Pfaff’s surgery involved replacing and reconstructing the majority of facial structures, including part of the forehead, nose, cheekbones, upper and lower jaws with teeth, upper and lower eyelids, mouth and all muscles of the face those facial expressions, along with the skin that lies all over the face and neck.

The medical team also used a new microsurgical technique to transplant the donor’s tear drainage system, allowing Pfaff’s tears to drain normally into his new nose.

“In face transplantation, it is not a life-saving procedure, but it is a life-giving procedure,” Mardini said.

“It’s a life-extending procedure, and that’s something that’s very crucial when we plan the surgery,” he said. “Unique to face transplantation is the restorative nature of the procedure. You don’t reconstruct parts of the face. You are recovering and bringing in fully formed facial parts.”

To ensure the surgery was accurate and precise, Mardini and his colleagues created a virtual surgical plan that involved taking CT scans of both the donor’s and Pfaff’s faces. The team then performed a ‘digital’ operation on a computer, with the help of biomedical engineers, before carrying out the real procedure.

“We decide together where the cuts will be on the bone and what angles the cuts should be,” Mardini said. “And we do the same thing for the donor and the recipient, so that when we undergo surgery, we have printed models of the skull, along with cutting guides of both the donor and the recipient, which allows us to perform the bony part of the surgery . exactly as we planned during the virtual session.”

The team 3D printed a custom guide to the procedure that they used almost like art stencils to guide them in cutting and performing all aspects of the surgery on the bones of the face. And “critical to the success of the operation” was the mapping of facial nerve branches in both the donor and recipient, Mardini said.

“We match the nerves together based on their function so that when Derek thinks about smiling, it stimulates the nerve for smiling – his own natural nerve that connects to the donor nerve and creates the smile,” Mardini said. The next part is for the muscles in Derek’s face to respond and form that smile.

“You should see a smile on his face,” Mardini said. “And that part of the operation ensures real success.”

‘A miracle that he sees himself’

Pfaff was told to wait about a month after the transplant before he could look at his new face, and during that time, Mardini said, his patient met with a psychiatrist to prepare for the big reveal.

“He wasn’t allowed to have a camera, his phone and his iPad,” said mother Lisa Pfaff. “The mirror in the bathroom was covered so he couldn’t see himself.”

Exactly ten years after that fateful night – March 5, 2024 – when Pfaff was finally able to see his new face for the first time.

“We turned a very sad, hard day into a very joyful experience for Derek, and it was just a miracle — a miracle for him to see himself,” his mother said.

While in the hospital, Pfaff looked in a mirror. He said he “looked like a human again” and that he had been given “a second chance.”

Pfaff can now express emotions on his face: joy, laughter, sadness and disappointment. He can speak much clearer and easier.

He trains twice a week, trains with a speech therapist and takes immunosuppressants to reduce the risk of this transplant rejectionThis happens when a transplant recipient’s immune system attacks the donor’s organ or tissue. He will continue to take these medications for the rest of his life.

Overall, Pfaff says he’s “doing well.” He is excited about his future and now wants to ‘help others’ by raising awareness about suicide.

“The sun will rise tomorrow,” Pfaff said. “You just have to stay positive, regardless of the situation. Look beyond the depths.”

Globally, more than 720,000 people die by suicide every year, and this is the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29, according to the World Health Organisation.

In the United States, suicide was responsible for nearly 50,000 deaths in 2022. That works out to about one death every 11 minutes, according to the most recent data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of people who attempt suicide or have suicidal thoughts is even higher. And research suggests that most young people who die by suicide in the U.S. have no prior mental health diagnoses.

Suicide is a serious mental health problem, but it is preventable and can be addressed with strategies to reduce risk at the individual, family and systemic levels. According to the CDC.

If you have a loved one for those who are struggling, some tips include asking if they are thinking about suicide, trying to listen without judgement, connecting them to resources such as the 988 crisis lineand stay in touch with them.

In the days leading up to Pfaff’s suicide attempt, his parents said, everything felt normal. Pfaff had gone skiing with friends a few days earlier, and on the day of the shooting the family discussed plans to attend an Ash Wednesday church service the next morning.

Pfaff was popular in high school and was an all-state football player, Lisa said.

“He had everything going for him, and we didn’t see this coming,” she said.

She initially felt very guilty because she had missed possible signs that her son was at risk of harming himself or taking his own life.

But as Lisa thinks more deeply about their family situation, “I don’t think we missed anything,” she said. “It was just something that snapped and something that happened, and we just had to gather the strength and courage to work through it and keep our family together.”

Pfaff is looking forward to spending the holidays with his parents, four siblings and extended family. They plan to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at Lisa’s mother’s house and watch the Detroit Lions football game.

“We are so proud of Derek and all he has overcome over the past decade with fighting spirit and staying positive,” Lisa said. “We just hope that now that Derek is in a position, doors will open for him so that we can all continue to share our family’s journey and Derek’s recovery.”

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available on the suicide and crisis helpline on 988. You can also contact the National Alliance on Mental Illness on NAMI.org.