Jen Thomas
A car-crash victim has recalled how he thought he was in the 'afterlife' after receiving a face transplant.
Now 26, Joe DiMeo was in a horrendous crash back in 2018 which left him with terrible burns covering 80 per cent of his body.
The car fanatic fell asleep at the wheel of his Dodge Challenger after finishing a nightshift and crashed, leaving him in a coma for three months.
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Two years after the incident he received a face transplant and a double hand transplant, making history.
DiMeo received the face of a 47 year old donor, in the first successful transplant of its kind.
Speaking to PEOPLE, he has shared how he went through horrendous pain in the early days of his treatment, and remembers having bad dreams while he was in a coma, and was convinced he was in the 'afterlife'.
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"When they take you into the tank room — where they wash you off, take off all the bandages — that’s not fun. You can feel the pain. So you’re dreaming about pain," he said, describing the many burn treatments as 'torture'.
Just 18 at the time of the crash, he said people often ask him if he experienced the afterlife with what happened.
"The only thing I experienced is me walking my dog. He passed away in 2012, 2013," he recalled.
"I was like, ‘Oh, this is it. I’m assuming this is the afterlife, just me walking my dog down an endless hill.’”
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He's not the first person to have a life-after-death experience, with several people sharing their experiences of what they say comes after.
One claimed to have experienced an 'overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had.'
It was the start of a very long recovery for Joe.
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Later, in 2019, Joe met with NYU Langone's Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez.
He was deemed to be a suitable candidate for the transplants, even though they were highly risky procedures which had failed twice before: "The first one passed away on the table, and the second one the hands failed."
"But going into any surgery, you can die, so that didn't bother me at all," he insisted.
"It's not a perfect surgery, and I was making it a perfect surgery in the beginning. But then I realized, you know what, let me be real," Joe says, after the surgery which involved 140 people.
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Joe says he wishes the accident hadn't happened, but he had a happy ending when he met his partner, who was training to be a nurse.
Jessica sent Joe a message on Instagram, and the couple eventually eloped in Hawaii in December 2024.
"It sucks I got into the accident. I lost 80 per cent of my skin, and I have someone else's face and hands on me," he said.
"But then I also found my life partner, and if I wouldn't have had the accident, I'd probably still be a cocky 26-year-old," he said candidly.
"I would prefer not to be burned, but I like my life now, just because I have Jessica around."