A man who became the world's first successful face and double hand transplant recipient has revealed what he remembers from his three-month coma.
Joe DiMeo's life was transformed forever when he fell asleep at the wheel of his Dodge Challenger in July 2018, resulting in a fireball crash which left him with third degree burns across 80 percent of his body.
The lad was dragged from the burning wreckage by two heroic bystanders and was later placed into a medically-induced coma due to his devastating injuries.
This lasted for more than three months - and the 26-year-old has now revealed what was going through his mind during this 12-week period.
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Despite being unconscious after the crash, Joe claims he has some traumatic memories from his time in hospital.
Recalling what he experienced while he lay heavily bandaged up in bed, he told People that he could 'hear people' speaking around him.
As well as this, Joe explained that he was plagued by vivid dreams, which he described as 'mostly bad' ones.
"When they take you into the tank room - where they wash you off, take off all the bandages - that’s not fun," he recalled. "You can feel the pain. So you’re dreaming about pain.
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"They’re not meaning to torture you, they’re just taking off the bandages, but it still hurts."
Despite being dangerously close to death following the devastating car crash, Joe says he didn't 'experience the afterlife' - however, he does have a profound memory linked to the possibility of life after death.
Joe explained: "The only thing I experienced is me walking my dog. He passed away in 2012, 2013.
"I was like, ‘Oh, this is it. I’m assuming this is the afterlife, just me walking my dog down an endless hill'."
After eventually waking from his three-month coma, the young lad's parents explained what had happened to him - before medics detailed the gruelling recovery process he now had to face.
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Joe explained: "The doctors came in and they told me, 'We had to amputate your fingertips down to the second knuckle, your eyelids are burnt off, you can't open your mouth fully no more...you're also 80 percent burnt'.
"I said, 'So like what, Freddy Krueger?' And he's like, 'Yeah'."
Over the next few months, Joe bravely underwent a myriad of different procedures - including having his fingertips amputated and more than 20 other reconstructive surgeries.
But his biggest fight came in August 2020 when he had a nearly 24-hour operation to receive a face and double hand transplant, an ambitious operation which had already failed on two patients previously.
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"The first one passed away on the table, and the second one the hands failed," Joe said. "But going into any surgery, you can die, so that didn't bother me at all."
He defied the odds and survived the complex surgery, despite it having a success rate of just six percent.
His surgery has since been considered a major milestone in the medical field.
Joe has continued to go from strength to strength and he even found love with Jessica Koby - who tracked him down online after hearing his inspiring story of resilience.
Jessica said of her first impression of her partner: "I remember looking at the picture of him, before and after, and thinking, ‘Dang, that sucks, he was a handsome guy'. But that’s all I thought."
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The pair soon bonded via Instagram over their shared love of dogs and they have since bought a home in New Jersey together, got engaged, and are now married.
Olivia Burke