A Face Transplant Is Giving This 26-Year-Old a Second Chance After - Article Health

If you’ve ever been given a second chance, you know how meaningful it can be. Cameron Underwood knows that better than most people—he was given a second chance at life. The 26-year-old underwent a face transplant after suffering a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face.

Underwood is from Yuba, California, just north of Sacramento. He grew up in a loving, faith-filled household with a strong and supportive family, but as he entered adulthood, he fell victim to a battle with depression.

In June of 2016, the mental illness progressed, and after turning to alcohol to cope, Underwood resorted to severe self-harm. He sustained a gunshot wound to the face, and though he survived, the damage left him missing the majority of his jaw, his nose, and every tooth but one, according to a statement from NYU Langone Health in New York City, where he had his surgery.

Despite attempts at conventional reconstruction, Underwood was seriously restricted from leading a normal life. He could barely speak, and he had to eat through a tube. This wasn’t the path he wanted for himself, and it certainly wasn’t the path his family wanted for him.

Then, Underwood’s mother, Beverly Bailey-Potter, read an article in the December 2016 issue of People about a groundbreaking face transplant program at NYU Langone Health. She immediately got in contact with the program’s director, Eduardo D. Rodriguez, MD, who would soon become the one to give her son his second chance.

Though Dr. Rodriguez and his team would perform the procedure, there was another person who would play perhaps an even more instrumental role in Underwood’s transplant: the donor.

On January 4, 2018, after Underwood had been on a waitlist for six months, a donor was found. His name was Will Fisher, pictured below. He was a 23-year-old Manhattan resident and student at Johns Hopkins University, who was also a chess champion, filmmaker, aspiring writer, and, of course, an organ donor.


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