Aaron James received the first ever eyeball transplant during a 21-hour-long surgical procedure – and five months later, his new eyeball is healthy
By Grace Wade
9 November 2023
Aaron James with Eduardo Rodriguez
Russ Geltman/NYU Langone Health
In a world first, surgeons have performed an eyeball transplant. It is uncertain if the recipient will be able to see using his new eye, but the procedure remains a significant step towards one day restoring vision in people who have experienced severe eye injuries.
On 27 May, Eduardo Rodriguez at NYU Langone Health in New York and a team of more than 140 others performed the eye transplant alongside a partial face transplant in Aaron James, a 46-year-old power line worker from Arkansas. To date, fewer than 50 facial transplants have been performed and none included an eye. Whole-eye transplants were previously deemed nearly impossible due to the organ’s complexity.
“I would like to thank the donor and the donor family. Without them, none of this could have been possible. I have the utmost respect for them to make this decision, to help people they don’t know, to give me this gift,” said James during a press conference on 9 November. “Before the transplant, emotionally, I was a little down. My confidence level was a little low. But since the transplant, I tell people I can’t walk past the mirror without looking at it. It has made me stand up taller. It’s great.”
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James was severely injured in June 2021 after his face touched a live wire, sending a 7200-volt shock through his body. He lost most of the left side of his face, including his left eye, as well as much of his left arm.
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Rodriguez and his team transferred the nose, lips and bone segments underlying the left cheek and chin of a deceased donor to James, along with most of the tissue beneath the right eye. They also transferred the donor’s entire left eye including the eyelids, eyebrows and eye socket. The procedure lasted about 21 hours.