Rochester- November 2024- A Michigan man can blink, swallow, smile and breathe through his nose for the first time in a decade thanks to a face transplant performed at Mayo Clinic. This transformative and complex procedure underscores Mayo Clinic’s skilled multidisciplinary surgical team who provide hope to patients with complex medical needs.
Derek Pfaff’s life changed forever on March 5, 2014, when a tragic incident during his college years left his face severely damaged by a gunshot.
“I was under a lot of pressure at college. I don’t remember making the decision to take my own life. When I woke up in the hospital, I originally thought I had been in a car accident,” he says.
Despite undergoing 58 reconstructive facial surgeries in 10 years before going to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, he was still unable to eat solid food or speak casually with friends and family. Wearing glasses proved impossible without a nose. This transformational face transplant at Mayo Clinic means the now 30-year-old from Harbor Beach, Michigan, will once again be able to do all those things he has missed. He has also become a passionate advocate for suicide prevention and plans to share his story to encourage others who are struggling to get help.
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“I lived for a reason. I want to help others,” Pfaff says. “I am so grateful to my donor, his family and my care team at Mayo Clinic for giving me this second chance.”
“Mayo Clinic Transplant Center is the largest integrated transplant center in the world. We were the first transplant center in the country to make face transplant part of its clinical practice. That has allowed us to focus exclusively on the needs of each individual patient,” says Hatem Amer, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic’s Reconstructive Transplant Program.
In the 19 years since the first face transplant was performed, more than 50 have been done around the world. Survival outcomes for these transplants are encouraging, according to a recent JAMA Surgery study. Mayo Clinic performed its first face transplant in 2016.
