Man's Life Saved with Piece of His Thigh after Being Crushed by Car
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Jeff survived being hit by a drunk driver while on his bicycle, and half of his face was left severely damaged. He joins The Doctors with plastic & reconstructive surgeon Dr. Jason Roostaeian to share more about his amazing recovery.
His wife Mollie received a call that her husband had been in a bad accident when she arrived at the emergency room she was stunned.
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"I could see that there was a cavity in his face," she says, explaining that she was in complete shock about the severity of Jeff's injuries. "His face was completely exposed... it was my worst fear coming true."
She says that Jeff collided with the car going about 30 miles per hour and was pinned under it for around 10 minutes. He suffered severe burns, a broken pelvis, broken ribs, one of his ears was even rubbed off by the road. She says she feared he would not survive, possibly be paralyzed, or have lasting brain damage. He underwent multiple procedures to remove the copious amounts of dead skin on his face and also an anterolateral thigh flap was grafted to his face which completely transformed and saved him.
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"I'm feeling great, I'm just happy to be alive. I'm very thankful for the whole process that I have gone through," Jeff tells The Doctors.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Ordon, who has been performing plastic surgery for 38 years, says, "This may be the most spectacular result reconstruction that I have ever seen. This is truly remarkable, you lost almost half your face and the underlying bone."
Dr. Roostaeian explains that the best place to take tissue from in order to reconstruct and save his face was from Jeff's thigh. He then underwent two more surgeries to shape and form the tissue from the thigh to best match Jeff's face. Dr. Roostaeian says he also used fat grafting and liposuction to achieve the amazing results.
Mollie tells us, "To see how he's gone through [this] journey, he's so inspiring, even to me. I was very concerned that he would go into depression and isolate... he came to terms with it. He's not a victim."
Despite his horrific accident, Jeff says he is back on his bike and riding again. To help Jeff and Mollie relax and enjoy themselves, our friends at The Montage Hotel Laguna Beach surprise the husband and wife with an amazing getaway.
