Incredible transformation of face transplant patient after he survived shooting himself in the head

Stunning footage has revealed the remarkable recovery of a former high school footballer who underwent one of the world’s first face transplants.

Derek Pfaff, 29, shot himself in the head with a 10-gauge shotgun in March 2014, blowing off most of his face during a failed suicide attempt.

Although he survived the gunshot wound, Derek was left with horrific facial injuries and was unable to smile, eat solid food, blink or smell.

Over the next ten years, he underwent 58 plastic surgeries that kept him alive, but he was still left with a number of problems as a result of the suicide attempt.

Despite only about 50 facial reconstructions having been attempted in history, Derek took the plunge in February and approved the daring surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The surgery involved more than 80 medical professionals over a 60-hour period, reconstructing approximately 85 percent of Derek’s face.

And even after the surgery was performed, Derek had to wait more than a month before seeing the results, and all phones and mirrors were removed from his room while his new face healed.

When he was finally presented with a mirror, he could not yet make a facial expression, but he could say a few words.

“Looks good,” he told his family. “Feels good.”

Derek was left with horrific facial injuries and could no longer smile, eat solid food, blink or smell. He underwent nearly 60 emergency surgeries before his facial reconstruction.

The facial reconstruction surgery involved more than 80 medical professionals over a 60-hour period, reconstructing approximately 85 percent of Derek’s face

When Pfaff attempted suicide ten years ago, the world was his oyster.

He graduated at the top of his class from Harbor Beach High School and had spent the past year as a standout player on his varsity football team, even scoring the winning touchdown en route to winning the state title.

But the pressure to be a perfectionist led to his suicide attempt, and after he shot himself, Derek’s parents said they found their son lifeless in the snow.

His mother Lisa said it was a miracle that Derek survived, and that he was kept alive in hospital for years through surgeries and emergency medical procedures.

Derek’s first plastic surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Moquin, said that when he first saw the student, he was amazed that he was still alive.

He told the Detroit Free Press the bullet “blew away his jawbone.”

“It blew away the top part of the inside of his mouth, in addition to the bottom of his mouth, and part of his tongue. Some of the projectiles were lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain,” he added.

Despite his injuries, Derek gave his family hope after he wiggled his foot on command while in intensive care, which his mother Lisa said “gave us hope.”

“We were like, OK. We’re going to do this… It’s going to be a long road… but it was okay,” she said.

Derek’s surgeons said they were astounded that he survived the suicide attempt after having his jawbone, tongue and most of his face blown off and projectiles “delivered into the frontal lobe of his brain.”

After Derek cleared his latest surgery, doctors still had to find a very specific donor because the match had to match Derek’s face, age, gender, blood type, skin color and be on life support.

Mary Prince, a donation liaison at LifeSource, the Minnesota organ procurement organization, said Star Tribune she was stunned when they found a match in North Dakota and approached the subject’s mother.

“The first words out of her mouth were, ‘That would be so amazing if I could see my son’s face walking around!’ Prince recalled.

She said the mother told her, “I would be grateful and I would love to meet (Derek)!”

After surviving the ordeal, Derek said he has now found a new lease on life and is focused on advocating mental health care for others who are struggling like him.

After the extensive search for a donor, surgeons then had to calculate how much bone and tissue to remove from Derek’s face, including lining up 18 nerve branches so he could blink and eat properly.

Halfway through, Dr. Samir Mardini told the Star Tribune that Derek was nothing more than exposed eyes, tongue and blood vessels.

Doctors then rebuilt Derek’s skull before draping his new face over his old one, before stitching it together around his forehead and chin.

Mardini said Derek’s surgery also included a microsurgery to reroute his tear ducts so they would roll down his face.

Although the Mayo Clinic performed Derek’s surgery in February, the clinic did not announce the results of his surgery until this month.

Although the ordeal lasted ten years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, Derek said he has now found a new lease on life and is focused on advocating mental health care for others who are struggling like him.

“If something is on your chest, talk to someone about it. Take it off,” he said. ‘It’s a normal life. This is who I am. I couldn’t be more grateful.”