Mitch Hunter underwent 67 facial reconstructive surgeries
Warning: Some readers may find images in this story disturbing
An ex-soldier has revealed his remarkable transformation thanks to one of the world’s first face transplants.
Mitch Hunter was just 21-years-old when a car he was in crashed into a 10,000-volt electrical pylon after a night out and was just the second person in America to undergo the dramatic surgery.
Hunter pushed the female passenger out of the way of the electrical current and suffered burns to his face, hands, and leg. For five minutes, currents pumped continuously through Hunter’s body – mainly his face.
Hunter was in hospital for two months but had to regularly revisit for four years – undergoing a total of 67 facial reconstructive surgeries.
The now father-of-three received his face from a donor – a man who had died – and has now fully revealed his transformation.
Hunter, from Indianapolis, Indiana, said: “I barely remember anything from when the wires touched my face.
“One minute I was helping the injured girl trying to get her away from the pole, the next I was in hospital nearly a month later.
“I knew my injuries were serious when my mum and step mum were in the room consoling one another because they usually hated each other,” Hunter recalled.
“For a few days, no one would show me a mirror, until my ex-girlfriend at the time came to visit and brought one with her.
“I can’t describe the feeling I had when seeing myself like that, it didn’t feel real – I was unrecognisable.”
Hunter said the girl that he saved only suffered minor burns to her foot, “but I suffered full-thickness burns on every inch of my face along with my hands and right leg”.
The leg on Hunter’s leg was so severe he was forced to have a below-the-knee amputation.
“I couldn’t believe how drastically my life had changed in what was a matter of minutes,” Hunter said, recalling how he woke up 27 days after the accident, surrounded by his family with no memory of the crash.
He needed 20 skin grafts from his leg and back to treat the skin on his face and neck which had “melted”.
In 2011, Hunter had the face transplant and said he did it then because he “didn’t want his children to be embarrassed by him in the future”.
“I made the decision for my kids because I didn’t want to be the reason they were bullied or outcast at school.
“Having people scream at the sight of you is upsetting, and I couldn’t imagine that happening in the company of my own children.
Some 30 doctors spent more than 14 hours reconstructing his face and now he is almost unrecognisable with a full beard and a full sensation in his face.
“My face was taken entirely from an organ donor, using his skin, soft tissue, cartilage from his nose, beard and eyebrows,” Hunter said.
“Surgeons removed all the scar tissue from my face, connected blood vessels and nerve endings.”
Hunter said he can now grow a bread “which once belonged to the donor which is really weird!”
“Having the transplant was the best decision of my life, and it has helped me put the accident behind me and finally move on with my life.”
Related links:
- Man given genetically modified pig heart in world-first operation dies
- Man receives first successful transplant of genetically-modified pig heart into human body
- 21-year-old woman becomes youngest person to receive a face transplant in the US
- The world’s first heartless human who lived without a pulse
