Man Who Had World’s First Face Transplant Has Finally Met His True Love, Shares Adorable Update
A bad accident left Joe DiMeo with burns across 80 percent of his body, leading to more than 20 skin grafts and reconstructive surgeries. But the young man never lost hope that one day he would lead a normal life.
Today, he’s thriving with his new face and he found his true love. A recent update on Joe’s page left so many people in awe and made their day. Here’s Joe’s inspiring story that motivates people to never give up, even in the darkest times.
Joe’s life took a tragic turn in 2018.
In 2018, Joe DiMeo was driving home after a long night shift, looking forward to climbing into bed, but he never got there.
DiMeo, now 25, recounted the life-altering events of July 18 in his interview, explaining that he “fell asleep at the wheel,” which caused his car to swerve off the road and go up in flames.
“I was in the hospital for four months, spending about half of that time in a coma,” he said. “After that, I started to regain my strength, and by the fourth month, I was in rehab.”
The accident left DiMeo with burns covering 80 percent of his body, requiring over 20 skin grafts and reconstructive surgeries. Despite everything, he never lost hope of living a normal life again.
Joe underwent a breakthrough surgery, making him a unique patient for the doctors.
Due to the complexity of his state, DiMeo was offered to go through a double hand and face transplant by doctors at NYU Langone.
The surgery was very complex, and it lasted for 23 hours. Currently, only 45 people in the world were lucky to receive such a breakthrough treatment. Doctors insist that DiMeo’s case was incredibly intricate and very rare.
He agreed to undergo this surgery as soon as he was offered this treatment. The man didn’t have even a single doubt, and in August 2020 he underwent the most important surgery in his life.
Joe’s life became merciful to him again and he found a valuable treasure after his difficult surgery.
In 2021, Joe DiMeo, now 26, found love for the first time since he was rescued from a burning car, an accident that left him with severe third-degree burns. Despite his injuries, Jessica Koby, 33, was deeply moved by Joe’s story, which she came across on social media, and quickly fell in love with him.
Jessica was inspired by Joe’s optimistic outlook on life and decided to reach out to him with a message on Instagram. They started chatting daily, which soon led to romantic outings and a blossoming love.
Now, the couple has taken the next big step in their relationship—Joe recently asked Jessica to spend her life with him.
Joe and Jessica are engaged now, and this wholesome news warmed the hearts of many.
Jessica shared the exciting news of their engagement on her Instagram account, posting photos of the happy couple celebrating the milestone. In the photos, Jessica proudly showed off her sparkling diamond ring while wearing a black dress paired with matching heels. Joe looked stylish in a chic yellow top and black pants.
The couple cozied up together, enjoying the moment as they embraced this new chapter in their relationship. The post was captioned, “Always my love.”
Joe also shared the exciting and adorable news on his page and captioned the post, “Big things going down on December 5th!”
People on the web flooded the comments section and shared their support for the lovely couple.
People just couldn’t hide their emotions about Joe’s heartwarming and really awesome update. One person said, “Beautiful couple, outfits and ring. Love you guys.” Someone else wrote, “Congrats!”
Another user added, “The ring!” “So excited about your new journey. God bless you😍,” commented another person.
One user emotionally shared, “Hi! I recently found your page and I fell into a 5-hour rabbit hole because I am so fascinated from a medical standpoint of Joe, and then I fell in love with your love story. I am also in the medical field, but not with people. I am a licensed veterinary nurse, I work in the intensive care unit at Cornell University Veterinary Specialists.
The fact that you bond over your perfect Bostons made my heart so happy! It is amazing to me when as a nurse we put so much in to our patients and the resilience of these individuals is extremely extraordinary. I would like to point out I am in NO way shape or form comparing Joe to any of my patients, and I also wanted to share how much respect I have for you as a busy nurse being on social media sharing your story.
The universe brought you guys together, and I wish you the best! And to anyone on here that has anything negative about to say….. I feel sorry for them because happiness spreads happiness!”
And here’s an inspiring story of a supermodel, Winnie Harlow, who turned her vitiligo into an attribute of beauty and now rocks the catwalks all over the world.