Aaron James Had the World's First Face and Eye Transplant a Year Ago. Today, 'I Feel Great' (Exclusive)

A year after Aaron James became the world’s first face and eye transplant recipient, he tells PEOPLE he’s dealing with a very unexpected problem: What should he do with all his extra time now that he’s feeling so good?

“Without seeing a doctor, we’re kind of lost,” jokes the 47-year-old former lineman, who spent years going from one medical office to another for treatment and therapy after being electrocuted in 2021 and losing half his face. “Now we have a little downtime and we ask ourselves: ‘What should we do?'”

A new study published today in Journal of the American Medical Association describes James’ remarkable recovery after the groundbreaking 21-hour surgery in May 2023. “Our goal was for him to blend in and be another face in the crowd,” Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, president and professor of plastic surgery at NYU Langone Health, tells PEOPLE. “The results are phenomenal. He looks fantastic and works really well.”

Aaron James.

Haley Ricciardi/NYU Langone Health

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In June 2021, James was away from his home in Arkansas on a job in an elevated bin near Tulsa, Okla., helping to switch wires to a new power pole when he hit a live wire with his face while holding the neutral wire. The shock of more than 7,000 volts of electricity that shot through his body blew off his thumb and burned him from the inside out.

The trauma caused strokes, kidney failure, burned his gums and destroyed his left eye, nose and lower face. Doctors had to extract seven teeth and amputate his left arm in the middle of the humerus. James had to eat through a feeding tube, breathe through a trach tube and learn to walk again.

When he went out in public, he would wear a mask to cover up his stunning injuries. “I didn’t want that to be my face,” he told PEOPLE last year. “I didn’t care to see.”

His prognosis was bad. “The doctors really didn’t know,” says his wife Meagan, 39. “They were like, ‘He’s never going to eat the same again, he’s probably never going to talk. Maybe he couldn’t get off the ventilator.'”

Aaron James.

NYU Langone Health

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Today, Aaron says, “I feel great. I’m probably as close to normal as I’ve ever been.”

The swelling from the surgery has subsided, and three weeks ago James got new teeth. Now, after several years of dieting on soup and mixed food, she enjoys salads, popcorn and Mexican chicken according to her mother’s recipe. “I feel great,” he says.

And instead of hiding from the public, “it’s liberating for him to take off the mask,” says Meagan. “He just looks like he’s scarred and his eye is closed from an accident, which he is.”

Doctors tested James’ transplanted eye for signs of vision. Although he still has no sight, says James, his body has not rejected him either.

Despite James not being able to see in his transplanted eye, Dr. Rodriguez says the surgery, in which stem cells are injected into the optic nerve during the transplant, is a big step forward. “We have to admit that nothing like this has ever been done. No one thought it was physically possible,” says Rodriguez, who led the 140-strong transplant team. “Experts in the field thought the eye would shrivel up like a raisin and die.” Instead, “the eyeball is viable, it has blood flow, it maintains its pressure.”

Aaron James and Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez.

Haley Ricciardi/NYU Langone Health

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Although the transplanted eye did not regain vision, electroretinography — a test that measures the retina’s electrical response to light — shows that the rods and cones, the light-sensitive nerve cells in the eye, survived the transplant, according to a new study. This provides a foundation and hope for the future of whole-eye transplants, according to the study.

While “I have no doubt he will see,” Rodriguez says, “it’s an incredible step forward for the first one ever made.”

For James, a National Guard veteran who served in Kuwait, Egypt and Iraq, the whole experience “changed my perspective,” he says. That’s partly due to his donor, a man in his 30s who, according to the organ procurement organization LiveOnNY, donated his face and eye to Aaron and saved three other lives with donations of his kidneys, liver and pancreas.

“I can’t stress enough how much a donor means to us,” says James. “They have no idea who I am, but they let me take a part of them. And they trusted me to take care of it. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got a lot to live for.”

Aaron and Meagan James.

THE JAMES FAMILY

That includes Meagan and their daughter, Allie, 19, who put her life on hold during her father’s recovery, taking a year off to travel with her parents for doctor’s appointments. Now, Allie is studying video game design and animation at a community college before transferring to a four-year college — and continues to insult her father on her TikTok page. Despite writing a medical history, he jokingly points out, “she is still bald”.

But experiencing her father’s trauma and recovery was an education in itself, she says.

“It changed the way I prioritize and think about what’s important,” she says. “When I see people, I give them more grace and understanding. It enlightened me a lot.”

In a strange way, Aaron says, “this was almost a good thing that happened because it brought us so much closer as a family. We’re much more connected. Before, I was always away from work.”

Allie, Aaron and Meagan James.

THE JAMES FAMILY

The whole family was raised, says Meagan. Aaron rediscovers pastimes he enjoyed before the accident, such as playing video games. “He feels a lot better now because he wants to do the things he used to love,” she says. “Somehow he found himself again. Healed much more than just the physical.”

She also found a cure, became healthier and lost weight by cutting out soda, alcohol and meat. And after enduring the challenges of caregiving for years, she can even enjoy the occasional lazy day.

“This has changed the way we think about the world and really everything,” she says. “You see more good in people. I see much more beauty, even in flaws.”

Adds Aaron, who was delighted by the outpouring of goodwill towards him: “I gained more trust and faith in humanity. People showed that they really cared.”

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Source: HIS Education