there.f there s always a million ways to be happy and you always have to find the good in something and there s always a way to find something good in something like that. sean: and he continues to make amazing progress every single day.o before i couldn t move them at all. it couldn t even pick up a fork and to eat. i couldn t pick up a burger or a pizza. so now they re pretty, they re still pretty tight, but i can pick up anything. sean: so things that you were relying on your parents for, now you can do it again yourself. i m slowly getting back to normal. sean: do you ever think that this is contributing, what you took a risk with your life, and that this will probably impact people many years from now? i feel like the veterans and stuff, i think it s going to impact them more because they
left arm, bones, plates, nerves. once the right and the left look like they re in good shape, then we remove the face.e. we ve been working for 23 hours it feels like we ve been working for 23 minutes.s. there s so many things going on in your mind. you re not tired. sean: you re not tired. no, you re not tired, high on adrian little. we re going, been going for a couple days, keep going, going going. now i take the parents to see cc their child for the first time. always incredibly emotional for everyone, including myself. sean: sure. when the parents see their son, in the case of joe, it s hard to contain theou tears, se.
sound good? let s get it done. multiple life saving blood transfusions and skin operations had left joe s immune system highly sensitive with a very low chance of finding a compatible donor. he essentially had a 6% chance of identifying someone that would be a proper donor for him. that is very difficult to find. sean: and the donor at that point has to be a perfect match. it was over a year that he had been waiting. i had been to the best experts from my institution nyu langone to think what are the questions and then we rehearsed not just the technical. sean: that was fascinating to me that we do rehearsals. we begin in a simulation lab we actually practice, two teams real time. practice on weekends through the entire operation. we sequence the operation. because, sure, both these types of operations have failed, so we need to make sure that this is going to be a success.
in patrick s body with patrick s blood. so that face is alive, it pinks up and you can feel the energy in the room from everyone because we are racing to that point. until that point we don t know what s going to happen. sean: what happened if you didn t get that flush? not successful. it can happen. in that case there are things we can try but notul something we want to face. sean: when we come back patrick begins life with a new face and his amazing transformation. plus: hold up the door. grab him, grab him. sean: the fiery crash shatters a young man s life in an instant and leaves him needing not just a new face but two new hands as well.
keep in mind that we have to amputate an arm on joe which was somewhat functioning not perfect, and then put on a new arm. so that s high risk. you literally have three separate teams operating. right. sean: one on each hand and one on his face simultaneously. simultaneously. we go to the simulation lab then to the operating room and practice all this. sean: you find out you might have the practice match, you actually get on an airplane and fly down. here you re talking to a family that just lost a loved one and you re asking them, you know, would they consider this. and they were. uh-huh. sean: how did that go? these families. are remarkable, sean. you would be surprised. you know, to ask someone in the most difficult time of their life, they ve lost their loved one, their son or daughter, askk them we d like them to donate their face or their hands. sean: to save somebody else s