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Electrocuted
- A U.S. Army veteran named Aaron James was electrocuted in June 2021 while working as a lineman for a contracting company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the accident, James lost more than half his face, including a part of his cheek and nose.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/what-happened-to-aaron-james-before-and-after-face-surgery-details-explored-in-wake-of-historic-whole-eye-transplant-success/ar-AA1jH78kWhat happened to Aaron James? Before and after face surgery ...
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Nov 9, 2023 · Aaron James, a high-voltage utility line worker, lost most of his face in a work accident in June 2021, when it accidentally touched a 7,200 volt live wire while out on a job.
- kerry.breen@paramount.com
- Jon LaPook,Kerry Breen
- 7 min
Nov 9, 2023 · Aaron James Lost Half His Face from Electrocution. He Just Received the First-Ever Eye and Face Transplant (Exclusive) While working as a lineman two years ago, James was electrocuted and...
- 1 min
- Eileen Finan,Wendy Grossman Kantor
Nov 9, 2023 · Aaron James, a 46-year-old military veteran and high-voltage lineman, miraculously survived a 7200-volt electric shock when a live wire touched his face in June 2021, according to a press release...
- Overview
- More than sight
Surgeons at NYU Langone Health have completed the world’s first whole eye transplant, a groundbreaking advancement many thought was impossible.
The patient, Aaron James, 46, a military veteran from Hot Spring Village, Arkansas, cannot see out of the transplanted eye, but he considers the operation a success nonetheless.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, and hopefully this will get the ball rolling on future surgeries,” James said in an interview.
In 2021, James survived what should have been a fatal electric shock while he was working as a high-voltage lineman. His face accidentally touched a live wire, causing devastating injuries, including the loss of his left eye, his nose and his lips. Only bone was left in his left cheek and his chin. Much of his left arm was also stripped to the bone.
The operation, which took place in May, lasted 21 hours and required the expertise of more than 140 surgeons, nurses and other health care professionals. In addition to the eye transplant, James also received a partial face transplant, which remains an incredibly rare procedure, with fewer than 50 face transplants having been performed worldwide since the first one in 2005.
The donated face and eye came from a single donor. The eye had never been removed from the donor’s socket, and the surrounding tissue and the optical nerve remained intact.
Rizzo said he believes a whole eye transplant that restores vision is still “beyond our capabilities at the moment.”
“For one to have sight at the level you’d be able to do something functional, it would require the reconnection of a fair number of nerve cells,” he said. “But the complexity is not just whether some nerve cells can regrow.”
Roughly 1.2 million nerve fibers connect each eye to the brain, and those nerves are not connected in a random fashion. “Point A has to connect to point A,” Rizzo said.
During brain development, a complex system of interactions forms specific pathways that connect points on the retina to points on the brain, he said. The adult brain does not have these same systems, at least not in a robust way.
“The public should not be imagining that vision will be restored at this point, but from a scientific standpoint, even if they were able to get a small number of nerve cells to grow back to the brain, that would be a groundbreaking accomplishment,” Rizzo said, noting that full vision restoration, if ever possible, is still likely to be a long way from reality.
Rodriguez said that restoring sight in James’ left eye through a whole eye transplant was a moon shot from the get-go but that performing the surgery provided other benefits, as well.
Nov 10, 2023 · In June 2021, half of James’s face, including his nose and his left eye, was destroyed after he was electrocuted on the job as a lineman — and doctors also had to amputate his dominant left arm....
Nov 10, 2023 · Aaron James, who survived a high-voltage electrical accident, underwent 21 hours of surgery that replaced half of his face. Surgeons have been able to transplant corneas successfully for...
