After 65 procedures, a 30-year-old man from Michigan who survived a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face over ten years ago has now had a life-changing face transplant.
On March 5, 2014, Derek Pfaff was discovered laying in a snowbank outside his Harbor Beach house
While on spring break from college. He was only 19 at the time. Beside him was the rifle. All he had on were shorts and a T-shirt.
He was faceless. It was a bullet wound to his head, and there was no face,” Derek’s mother, Lisa Pfaff, told WXYZ Detroit. “And Jerry put him in the car face down, which was actually the first
Miracle because if he had put him face up, he would have choked to death on the two and a half miles to our hospital and drowned on the blood.”
Derek Pfaff, a suicide attempt survivor, received a face transplant after 58 reconstructive surgeries failed to restore his face which was severely damaged from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A Mayo Clinic team reconstructed 85% of his face in a 50-hour surgery, using innovative… pic.twitter.com/pHe4L1wZGR
— Ground News (@Ground_app) November 26, 2024
Derek, a talented football player in high school, survived the attempt, but the consequences was devastating.
