{"id":58595,"date":"2025-05-11T16:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T16:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=58595"},"modified":"2025-05-11T16:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T16:41:13","slug":"30-year-ol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=58595","title":{"rendered":"30-Year-Ol."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scontent-los2-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t39.30808-6\/496277372_122226194780071088_868373919740793617_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&amp;_nc_cat=100&amp;ccb=1-7&amp;_nc_sid=127cfc&amp;_nc_eui2=AeEz0sfLwydDZnN4zRJk1uiA1ckqhIsMMtrVySqEiwwy2vHgVZksBAwGgOrMcf_5NnBt-OVr95oT78KrZyMOIotL&amp;_nc_ohc=6oKkVpngJ5IQ7kNvwHirW18&amp;_nc_oc=AdmEJyuR6YY3PFYi7FU-1U9fX1XVHk7s2il2k7TrJehejTx2fIF-kR6xxAUbgIOZZ5Xn94HuXfTQOSUHIB0Wobg7&amp;_nc_zt=23&amp;_nc_ht=scontent-los2-1.xx&amp;_nc_gid=VYGs_YEKxTpBPq9s6Vnrpw&amp;oh=00_AfIYKZYNQwT20fiPp37DnvJwd2cfSuJyXaH6gDOr9d8e0g&amp;oe=68269284\" alt=\"May be an image of 3 people, hospital and text\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek Pfaff, a 30-year-old Michigan man, recently received a life-changing face transplant<br>Pfaff shot himself in the face while home from college during spring break in March 2014 when he was 19 years old<br>He is one of only about 50 people in the world to have undergone the procedure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A 30-year-old Michigan man has finally received a life-changing face transplant after attempting suicide 11 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the early hours of March 5, 2014, Derek Pfaff was found lying outside his home in Harbor Beach on a mound of blood-covered snow. He was 19 years old at the time, his mom, Lisa Pfaff, previously told PEOPLE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek, who was home from college during spring break, was found by his father, Jerry Pfaff, and the family rushed him to a local hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe was in shorts and his T-shirt from what he had on that night, and the gun laying next to him,\u201d Lisa recalled to WXYZ Detroit in a recent interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe had no face. There was no face, it was a gunshot wound right to his head and Jerry put him in the vehicle face down, which really was the first miracle, because if he would have put him face up in the vehicle, he would\u2019ve drowned on the blood and choked to death on the two and a half miles just to get to our hospital,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Derek&#039;s story: Just another face in the crowd\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nkr8xkHiKQM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek miraculously survived the gunshot wound, but his face was severely affected. He had lost an eye, no longer had a nose and his teeth and lips were mostly gone. He underwent 58 surgeries from 2014 through 2020, at which point his doctors told him there was nothing left they could do, per WXYZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t go out in public,\u201d Derek told the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople would point and, you know, call him names, and it was just so hard,\u201d Lisa added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek, a former high school football star, told WXYZ that prior to the suicide attempt, he put a lot of \u201cpressure\u201d on himself academically, but often kept his feelings \u201cprivate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI kept \u2026 my feelings and emotions inside. I didn\u2019t want to talk to anyone about it. I wish I would have now \u2014 mom, dad \u2014 whoever, got off my chest. I would have felt so much better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en33.usnews.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/PAILIN-1-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9496\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek \u2014 who now considers himself lucky to be alive \u2014 eventually became eligible for a face transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., per a video press release from the clinic. He and his family then received word that a donor had become available in February 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After an extensive surgery that same year and numerous follow-up procedures, Derek now has a fully functioning face again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Derek is the second person to ever receive a face transplant at the Mayo Clinic, and one of only about 50 people to have received the procedure worldwide, per the clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lisa called Derek\u2019s transplant \u201cmiraculous\u201d and said he looked \u201camazing\u201d in a GoFundMe set up to cover Derek\u2019s extensive medical expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lisa also shared that Derek underwent an additional follow-up surgery \u2014 making it his 65th surgery total since 2014 \u2014 on May 2, per the fundraising page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The GoFundMe page has raised $285,895 toward its $1 million goal as of Friday, May 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text \u201cSTRENGTH\u201d to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Derek Pfaff, a 30-year-old Michigan man, recently received a life-changing face transplantPfaff shot himself in the face while home from college during spring break in March 2014&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58596,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58595\/revisions\/58596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}