{"id":2571,"date":"2024-11-19T15:14:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T15:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/19\/survivor-of-suicide-attempt-receives-innovative-face-transplant-it-was-just-a-miracle\/"},"modified":"2024-11-19T15:14:46","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T15:14:46","slug":"survivor-of-suicide-attempt-receives-innovative-face-transplant-it-was-just-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/19\/survivor-of-suicide-attempt-receives-innovative-face-transplant-it-was-just-a-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivor of suicide attempt receives innovative face transplant: \u2018It was just a miracle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: <\/em><\/strong>This story contains a discussion of suicide. Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.<\/em><\/p>\n

Derek Pfaff remembers being under a lot of stress throughout college. He remembers coming home from school during spring break in March 2014. But he does not remember the night that forever changed his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember anything,\u201d said Pfaff, from Harbor Beach, Michigan. \u201cI don\u2019t remember getting the gun, going outside, shooting myself or the weeks afterwards.\u201d <\/p>\n

It was shortly after 1:30 a.m. when his father, Jerry Pfaff, noticed that the family\u2019s gun <\/strong>cabinet was open. He searched the area around the house and found his son lying in a snowbank next to the garage. <\/p>\n

\n

Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters.
In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world. <\/p>\n

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      Derek Pfaff was rushed to the hospital. When he eventually regained consciousness and found himself in a hospital bed, he thought he had been in a car accident. <\/p>\n

      The gunshot wound from his suicide attempt had left his face severely damaged. He lost his nose, his lips, his teeth and parts of his forehead, which affected his ability to breathe, chew, swallow, smile or blink. <\/p>\n

      In the years that followed, Pfaff had 58 facial reconstructive surgeries. They were helpful, but he was still missing a nose, his upper and lower jaw, teeth, his eyelids and part of his forehead bone. He was unable to chew or speak easily. <\/p>\n

      \u201cThere was still a lot of work that needed to be done, and there was really nothing more that that hospital or facility could do for him,\u201d said his mother, Lisa Pfaff. <\/p>\n

      At the time, she said, a doctor told her: \u201cThe only option for Derek is a face transplant.\u201d <\/p>\n

      Pfaff, 30, is now one of just several dozen people in the world who have successfully received a life-changing face transplant. Among them are Aaron James, who received the world\u2019s first whole-eye and partial face transplant, and Katie Stubblefield, who was the youngest person to receive a face transplant in the United States. <\/p>\n

      Mayo Clinic, where Pfaff\u2019s surgery was completed, performed its first face transplant in 2016. <\/p>\n

      \u201cThere\u2019ve been several patients in the United States that have had face transplants and over 50 around the world, and every single one of those patients is different. There\u2019s no injury that\u2019s the same,\u201d said Dr. Samir Mardini, chair of plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic, who serves as a facial reconstructive and facial reanimation surgeon and surgical director of Mayo Clinic\u2019s Reconstructive Transplant Program. Mardini led Pfaff\u2019s surgery. <\/p>\n

      When \u201cyou\u2019re looking at a defect \u2013 the structure that you\u2019re missing, the function that you\u2019re missing \u2013 they\u2019re never the same,\u201d he said. \u201cSo every face transplant that\u2019s happening currently is innovative and it has something unique to it.\u201d <\/p>\n

      \u2018It\u2019s a life-giving procedure\u2019<\/h2>\n

      Pfaff\u2019s 50-plus-hour transplant surgery was performed in February at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, involving a team of at least 80 health care professionals. <\/p>\n

      The team surgically removed the face of a donor and then surgically implanted the donor tissue onto Pfaff to restore his face structure and functions. About 85% of his face was reconstructed and replaced with donor tissue, Mardini said. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

      Pfaff\u2019s operation included replacing and reconstructing the majority of the facial structures, including part of the forehead, the nose, the cheekbones, the upper and lower jaws with teeth, the upper and lower eyelids, the mouth and all the muscles of the face that produce facial expressions, along with the skin overlying the entire face and neck. <\/p>\n

      The medical team also used a new microsurgery technique to transplant the donor\u2019s tear drainage system, allowing Pfaff\u2019s tears to drain normally into his new nose. <\/p>\n

      \u201cWith facial transplantation, it\u2019s not a lifesaving procedure, but it\u2019s a life-giving procedure,\u201d Mardini said. <\/p>\n

      \u201cIt\u2019s a life-enhancing procedure, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s really critical when we\u2019re planning the surgery,\u201d he said. \u201cUnique to facial transplantation is the restorative nature of the procedure. You are not reconstructing parts of the face. You are restoring, bringing in fully formed facial parts.\u201d <\/p>\n

      To ensure that the surgery was precise and accurate, Mardini and his colleagues created a virtual surgical plan that involved taking CT scans of both the donor\u2019s and Pfaff\u2019s faces. The team then did a \u201cdigital\u201d surgery on a computer, with the help of biomedical engineers, before performing the real procedure. <\/p>\n

      \u201cWe decide together where the cuts are going to be on the bone, what angles the cuts should be at,\u201d Mardini said. \u201cAnd we do that the same on the donor and recipient so that when we go to surgery, we have printed models of the skull along with cutting guides of both the donor and the recipient, which allows us to execute the bony part of the operation exactly how we planned it in the virtual session.\u201d <\/p>\n

      The team 3D-printed a customized guide for the procedure that they used almost like art stencils to guide them on where to cut and execute all aspects of the surgery on the bones of the face. And \u201ccritical to the success of the operation\u201d was mapping out facial nerve branches on both the donor and the recipient, Mardini said. <\/p>\n

      \u201cWe match the nerves together based on function so that when Derek is thinking about smiling, it\u2019s stimulating the nerve for smiling \u2013 his own native nerve that is connected to the donor nerve, that creates the smile,\u201d Mardini said. The next part is for the muscles in Derek\u2019s face to then respond and form that smile. <\/p>\n

      \u201cYou should see a smile on his face,\u201d Mardini said. \u201cAnd that part of the surgery is what really creates success.\u201d <\/p>\n

      \u2018A miracle for him to see himself\u2019<\/h2>\n

      Pfaff <\/strong>was told to wait about a month after the transplant before looking at his new face, and in that time, Mardini said, his patient <\/strong>met with a psychiatrist to prepare for the big reveal. <\/p>\n

      \u201cHe wasn\u2019t allowed to have a camera, his phone, his iPad,\u201d mom Lisa Pfaff said. \u201cThe mirror in the bathroom was covered so he couldn\u2019t see himself.\u201d <\/p>\n

      Exactly 10 years after that fateful night \u2013 March 5, 2024 \u2013 when Pfaff finally was able to see his new face for the first time. <\/p>\n

      \u201cWe turned a really sad, hard day into a really joyful experience for Derek, and it was just a miracle \u2013 a miracle for him to see himself,\u201d his mother said. <\/p>\n

      While at the hospital, Pfaff <\/strong>looked in a mirror. He said that he \u201clooked like a person again\u201d and that he had been given \u201ca second chance.\u201d <\/p>\n

      Pfaff can now express emotions on his face: joy, laughter, sadness and disappointment. He can speak much more clearly and easily. <\/p>\n

      He works out twice a week, trains with a speech therapist and takes immunosuppressive drugs to reduce the risk of transplant rejection, which happens when a transplant recipient\u2019s immune system attacks the donor\u2019s organ or tissue. He will continue to take these medications for the rest of his life. <\/p>\n

      Overall, Pfaff said, he is \u201cdoing well.\u201d He is excited about his future and now wants to \u201chelp others\u201d by raising suicide awareness. <\/p>\n

      \u201cThe sun will rise tomorrow,\u201d Pfaff <\/strong>said. \u201cYou just have to stay positive, no matter what the situation is. Look past the down.\u201d <\/p>\n

      Globally, more than 720,000 people die by suicide every year, and it\u2019s the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 29, according to the World Health Organization. <\/p>\n

      In the United States, suicide was responsible for nearly 50,000 deaths in 2022. That represents 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 US do not have previous mental health diagnoses. <\/p>\n

      Suicide is a serious mental health issue, yet it can be preventable and can be addressed with strategies to mitigate risks on individual, familial and systemic levels, according to the CDC. <\/p>\n

      If you have a loved one who\u2019s struggling, some tips include asking whether they are thinking about suicide, trying to listen without judgment, connecting them with resources such as the 988 crisis line, and keeping in touch with them. <\/p>\n

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      Derek Pfaff before his suicide attempt.<\/span> <\/div>
      Mayo Clinic<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      In the days leading up to Pfaff\u2019s suicide attempt, his parents said, everything felt normal. Pfaff had gone skiing with friends a couple of days before, and on the day of the shooting, the family discussed plans to attend an Ash Wednesday church service the next morning. <\/p>\n

      Pfaff had been popular in high school and was an all-state football player, Lisa said. <\/p>\n

      \u201cHe had everything going for him, and we didn\u2019t see this coming,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

      She initially felt a lot of guilt for missing possible signs that her son <\/strong>was at risk of harming himself or ending his life. <\/p>\n

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      • Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta<\/strong> every Friday from the CNN Health team.<\/li>\n
          <\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

          But as Lisa reflects more about their family situation, \u201cI don\u2019t think we missed anything,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just something that snapped and something that happened, and we just needed to take the strength and courage to work through it and to keep our family together.\u201d <\/p>\n

          Pfaff is looking forward to spending the holidays with his parents, his four siblings and the extended family. They plan to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at Lisa\u2019s mother\u2019s home and watch the Detroit Lions football game. <\/p>\n

          \u201cWe\u2019re so proud of Derek and everything that he has overcame over the last 10 years with a fighting spirit and staying positive,\u201d Lisa said. \u201cWe\u2019re just hoping that now that Derek\u2019s in a position, that doors will open for him, for us to all continue sharing our family\u2019s journey and Derek\u2019s recovery.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

          This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

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