When Aaron James, 47, accidentally touched a live electrical wire while at work as a lineman, doctors didn’t know if he’d come out alive.
The Arkansas army veteran lost large parts of the left half of his face, his arm and his eye and could not longer smell, taste or move his mouth.
But last year, in a worlds first operation that took 140 NYU Langone doctors 21 hours, Mr James received a new eyeball and face from an anonymous donor.
The surgery allowed his wife to give his wife of over 20 years, Meagan James, 39, a kiss again. Ms James said their first kiss after the transplant was emotional, and: ‘Just to have that back was pretty special.’
Mr James (pictured with his wife, Meagan) only spent 17 days in the intensive care unit. The two were able to kiss for the first time after the transplant
Before his accident, Mr James worked as an electrical linemen and did multiple tours in the Middle East with the US Army. Mr James was discharged from the hospital in July, mere months after his transplant surgery in May
Since the surgery took place in New York in May 2023, doctors have closely monitored the Arkansas army veteran for signs that the experimental surgery had gone wrong.
He’s surpassed all predictions, recovering in the ICU in record time and ‘far exceeding’ initial expectations from his transplant team.
Now, he’s enjoying doing ‘normal things’ again, like eating solid food.
Because the extent of his injuries was so severe, the father of one had been on a strictly liquid diet for two years.
‘I knew getting back to normal would be (on track) if I could eat pizza,’ Mr James said. And now, thanks to the experimental surgery, he can.
Dr Eduardo D Rodriguez, the lead surgeon and director of the Face Transplant Program at NYU Langone, said: ‘Many experts did not think we would even be here, but we’ve successfully transplanted and maintained an eye without immune rejection.’
Dr Rodriguez lead the team of over 100 surgeons, nurses and support staff as they removed the muscle, nerves, fat and skin, as well as the left eye, from an anonymous organ donor.
They then began racing against the clock, trying to attach each millimeter-wide nerve that rules the eye to Mr James’ face before the organ died. They also flushed the area around the eye nerves with stem cells from the donor, in hopes it would help the nerves grow.
Dr Elizabeth A. Bradley an ophthalmologist from the Mayo Clinic who was not involved in the transplant, said: ‘The procedure was both a technical and technological tour de force’.
Doctors have been theorizing different ways to perform eye transplants since the 1970s, Dr Bradley said, in part because there’s no treatment for many forms of blindness, which affect more than 1 million Americans.
But it seemed nearly impossible to transport because nearly as soon as it’s snipped from the donor, the eye’s nerves begin dying off, as its starved of blood flow, Dr Bradley said.
Once an eye is implanted, the body may reject the new organ, reacting to it like its’s a virus or infection – making the recipient sick.
Mr James, who had worked to serve the public both through the army and as an electrical linemen, was willing to take on the risks.
‘That’s really my biggest hope out of this deal. I mean, if I can see out of it [my eye], that’s great. But If it’ll kickstart the next path in the medical field, then I’m all for it,’ Mr James told CNN.
In the year since, the organ has maintained it’s size and blood flow, and the rest of the facial transplant has also stayed healthy.
At this point, Mr James cannot see out of the donor eye, though his right eye still works fine. But the blood flow and some additional tests leave doctors hopeful that there still is a chance that he might be able to see in the future.
Mr James returned to Arkansas in September 2023 to his home with his wife and daughter (pictured).
For example, brain scans show activity in the part of the brain responsible for vision from the left eye, Dr Jeffery Goldberg, a Stanford ophthalmologist who did not participate in the research, said.
He added: ‘MRI data are not sufficiently conclusive to suggest regenerative growth, but they are a tantalizing data point toward that hope.’
Moving forward, as the patient continues taking a complex cocktail of drugs to keep infection at bay, he will be visited by doctors regularly to check on the progress of his eye.
‘The next challenge is understanding how to restore sight. I look forward to continuing this research in collaboration across academia to accelerate these discoveries with unique tools and the best therapies,’ Dr Rodriguez said.
The fact that he isn’t able to see out of his eye at this point has not dimmed Mr James’ gratitude. He said, he ‘felt honored to be patient zero’.
‘I’ve been given the gift of a second chance, and I don’t take a single moment for granted.’
