Derek Pfaff was just 20 years old when a gunshot robbed him of his face forever.
It happened in March 2014, while he was in college, in Michigan. For 10 years, he underwent 58 reconstructive surgeries without being able to eat solid food, speak naturally, or even wear glasses, because he no longer had a nose to hold them up. Until he reached Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and a team of 80 professionals gave him, in a single operation lasting more than 50 hours, what a decade of attempts had been unable to give back: 85% of his face, reconstructed with donated tissue.
Today Pfaff can blink, swallow, and smile again. His tears drain normally thanks to a microsurgery technique never before used in this way. “I lived for a reason. I want to help others”, he says, grateful to his donor and determined to tell his story to inspire other young people going through the same darkness.
