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>> sean: the only option to restore joe's quality of life was to consider a face and double hand transplant, something that had never been successfully done anywhere in the world. >> there had been other attempts did not work. >> correct. >> the other two face and hands the first in paris, face and double hand, the patient died in thes, hospital from complicatios infectious complications and there are a number of different reasons why that happened. the second patient was done in boston, the face survived but the hands failed. and when you look at our patients, it's almost like a lunar launch....

>> well you do what you love. >> sean: in 2001 he ran into a burning building to rescue a woman that was trapped inside. suddenly the burning roof collapsed directly onto patrick's head. >> roof collapsed on patrick knocking down his helmet. he felt the mask on his face was melting. >> sean: patrick held his breath. he jumped out of a window with he jumped out of a window with to his face. it claimed his h scalp, his nose, his lips, his ears his eyelids and all the skin on his face. >> i remember everything from getting in the ambulance to the helicopter. don't remember very much after that. >...

I'm in the donor room procuring the face for patrick. >> sean: why is it important that you be involved. >> in the donor room that's a highly pressured room because it's time sensitive. the patient can reach some time of instability so we have to be able to pull off organs, face hands, quickly. so that's a room that demands a certain level of attention but you have to move quickly.tt >> sean: and how long does that part of the procedure take? >> in patrick's case, thehe procuring and removal of the face, the dissection of all the nerves, that was a 12 hour dissection. which means we make the i...

A scream. she said, who was that? i said it's joe. he was in an accident. is he okay?as i said it doesn't sound good. >> he was in a medically induced coma for three straight months. the severe facial scarring left him with no lips, no eyelids. his fingertips had to be amputated leaving him unable to do everyday tasks and live a regular life. >> you have this horrible car accident, you don't remember, i would assume, right, at this point. >> no, i don't even remember going to work that night either. >> sean: so youha had all these skin graft surgeries. you had no lips, no eyelids. your fingert...

He wouldli grab things with his hands like this. he didn't have functional digits. we amputated his arm at forearm level. >> sean: can't go back. >> point of no return. at this point the right hand is ready to go we remove it everything's tagged, we flush it with a preservative the right hand goes into the room and we begin the connections. while we're working on that remain are, my team is moving on the right arm, we're still working on the left hand and the face. once they've reached about a 50% completion work on the rightwo hand, in joe's room, the bones r are connected, plates are screwed...