TikToker Joe DiMeo Details Face Transplant After Car Crash, Body Burns

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Joe DiMeo is using his story to inspire others.

As a lifestyle expert, I’m always amazed by stories of incredible resilience, and this one truly stands out. A TikToker who survived a devastating car crash – one that burned 80% of his body – is now sharing his journey in a new book called Eighty Percent Gone, One Hundred Percent Strong: Rebuilt with Resilience. What makes his story even more remarkable is that he underwent the first-ever successful dual face and double hand transplant. It’s a powerful testament to the human spirit, and I think it’s a read everyone could benefit from.

In a recent TikTok post from January 20th, the 27-year-old, who received a face and hands from a 47-year-old donor in August 2020, said he hopes his book will inspire and motivate others going through difficult times.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve been following Joe’s incredible story for years. He was just 18 when a terrible accident – falling asleep at the wheel after a long shift – changed his life forever. He spent three months in a coma, and the recovery has been a long journey, involving over 20 surgeries to rebuild his life. What’s truly inspiring is how openly he’s shared his emotional state leading up to the life-changing decision to undergo face and hand transplants. It’s a powerful testament to resilience and a reminder to prioritize rest.

In a June interview with People magazine, Joe recounted that his surgeon’s first words were a frank acknowledgment of potential failure. However, Joe wasn’t fazed, explaining that all surgeries carry a risk of death, and he accepted that.

He said, “Everyone dies eventually. I’d rather risk everything trying to be self-reliant and truly live my life.”

So, in August 2020, Joe underwent a 23-hour surgery that took 86 medical personnel. 

He described how surgeons removed the damaged tissue from his face, making cuts around his hairline and behind his ears – areas with a lot of scarring. Then, they attached the donor face, carefully reconnecting all the blood vessels, muscles, and tendons. To prevent drooping, they also secured the new face with metal plates under his cheekbones.

Joe explained that surgeons reconnected all the veins, ligaments, and nerves after essentially severing the hands just above the wrists.

Following a long recovery where he had to relearn everyday skills, Joe met his future wife, Jessica, on Instagram. He now views this as a positive outcome of everything he went through.

He described the accident as a terrible experience, explaining that he suffered severe burns – losing most of his skin – and received a face and hands in reconstructive surgery. Despite the trauma, he also met the person he would eventually marry. He believes the accident, while devastating, ultimately changed him for the better, preventing him from remaining the arrogant young man he was at 26.

Joe admitted he didn’t want to be harmed, but he was happy with his life as long as he had Jessica with him.

Read on to learn about others who have spoken out about their life-changing accidents. 

Let me tell you, it was a terrifying experience for Jamie Lynn Spears and her family. Back in February 2017, her then 8-year-old daughter, Maddie, was riding an ATV near their Louisiana home when she unfortunately had an accident. The vehicle flipped into a pond, and poor Maddie was underwater for several minutes. It was a truly frightening situation, and thankfully, she eventually recovered.

Jamie Lynn remembered thinking her daughter had died when she was pulled from the water and first responders took over. She shared this on the 2020 podcast Maria Menounos Better Together.

Although the extent of her injuries was initially unknown, Maddie regained consciousness and was able to speak after two days. She was back to her usual activities within a few weeks.

Jamie Lynn shared that she feels incredibly fortunate to have her daughter back after a difficult time when they were separated. She expressed relief and gratitude for being reunited.

An accidental prop gun strike injured Rebel Wilson on the set of her 2025 action comedy, Bride Hard. During a fight scene on her final day of filming, a gun hit her in the face, splitting her nose. “It was just a freak accident,” Wilson told Access Hollywood in June 2025. “I had to leave the set – it was my last night! I couldn’t believe how unlucky I was.”

She described being terrified after the 2023 incident, explaining that she was surrounded by her own blood. An ambulance was called, and a plastic surgeon had to be brought in to prevent permanent scarring. Thankfully, the surgeon was able to repair the damage with stitches, and she says you can’t even tell it happened now.

Jimmy Fallon, the host of The Tonight Show, had a scary accident at home where he tripped and fell. While trying to steady himself, his ring caught on something, and he nearly lost a finger in the process.

Doctors hospitalized him for ten days to try and save his finger after he suffered a severe injury—a “ring avulsion,” where the ring caused significant damage. They worked to prevent amputation.

In June 2025, Zane Wach, a seasoned hiker and multi-sport athlete who competes in long-distance running, swimming, and triathlons, almost succumbed to altitude sickness while hiking Mount Whitney in California with his father, Ryan Wach.

Ryan told SFGATE that the 14-year-old began having hallucinations, but was aware they weren’t real. He reported seeing things like snowmen and Kermit the Frog.

Ryan had to repeatedly stop his teenage son from walking off the cliff as they hiked back down the trail. The father explained that his son seemed to be experiencing a break from reality, and they still haven’t figured out why. Ryan believes it was likely a combination of factors, including being very tired, not getting enough sleep, possible dehydration, and lingering effects from altitude sickness.

After failing twice, Ryan couldn’t reach Zane before his son fell about 120 feet from the cliff. It took six hours for a rescue helicopter from Inyo County to arrive and transport Zane to the hospital in Lone Pine. Doctors stabilized him there and then transferred him to a specialized trauma center for children in Las Vegas, where he was placed in a medically induced coma. Eventually, Zane began to breathe independently.

Ryan described his teenager’s recovery from a serious accident – including a head injury, broken finger and ankle, and fractured pelvis – as a long journey. He said, ‘We’re still going through it, but we expect him to survive and recover.’

On New Year’s Day in 2023, actor Jeremy Renner, known for his role in Avengers, was seriously injured while helping a family member. He was using a snowplow near his Lake Tahoe home to pull a stuck vehicle when he got out to check on it. Unfortunately, the plow started moving and Renner was pulled under, resulting in 38 broken bones as he tried to prevent it from hitting his nephew.

In his 2025 memoir, My Next Breath, he described lying on the ice on New Year’s Day, his heartbeat slowing. He wrote that after manually breathing for about thirty minutes – a strenuous effort like doing ten to twenty push-ups every minute for half an hour – he simply grew tired and died, unbeknownst to his daughter, sisters, friends, or parents.

Despite suffering broken bones, significant blood loss, and the danger of dangerously low body temperature, he believed he had died. He recalled that paramedics found his heart rate had dropped to just 18 beats per minute – a level considered fatal.

In May 2025, TikTok creator Emilie Kiser and her husband, Brady, experienced a terrifying ordeal when their three-year-old son, Trigg, accidentally fell into their swimming pool at their home in Arizona.

On May 12th, Chandler Police responded to a home after a child was found unconscious in a backyard pool. Police and firefighters immediately began CPR, and the child, later identified as Trigg, was taken to Chandler Regional Hospital. Unfortunately, Trigg died six days later.

Emilie took legal action against Maricopa County, asking the court to keep the details of his death private. According to the lawsuit, Emilie is focused on caring for her two-month-old son, Theodore, and is struggling emotionally every day.

Dr. Cara Hodgson experienced a terrifying ordeal during a family vacation to Thailand in December 2023. She was shocked by power lines, which caused her to lose consciousness and be taken to the emergency room. In a New Year’s Day Instagram post, the influencer described the following week and a half as a struggle for her life, spent moving between hospitals to recover her strength. She expressed immense gratitude to be alive, calling it “the worst 10 days” of her life.

Despite the discomfort, the orthodontist discovered a newfound appreciation for life. Cara explained that the experience reminded her – and all of us – of something important: simply being alive is a gift. Being able to breathe, eat, speak, and move is truly wonderful and deserves to be celebrated.

In June 2025, Brazilian tourist Juliana Marins died while hiking on Mount Rinjani, an active volcano in Indonesia. She fell from a cliff, and despite a four-day search effort involving 48 people, her body was only found after being hampered by bad weather, difficult terrain, and poor visibility, according to a statement from the Brazilian government. Thankfully, she did not fall into the volcano’s crater.

Juliana Marins has sadly passed away, her family announced on Instagram. The rescue team reached her location today, but she did not survive. The family expressed their deep gratitude for all the prayers, kind messages, and support they received.

In 2015, actress Tori Spelling, known for her role on Beverly Hills, 90210, suffered a burn on her right arm while at an Easter brunch at Benihana. She tripped and fell onto a hot Hibachi grill, requiring skin grafts. She later decided to file a lawsuit against the restaurant.

She revealed on her 2024 podcast, 9021OMG (co-hosted with Jennie Garth), that she received a skin graft from her thigh after a severe burn. She jokingly said, ‘Not many people can say they’re wearing their thigh on their arm,’ explaining that a thin layer of skin from her thigh was used to cover the burn on her arm.

Comedian Tony Knight tragically died in June 2024 at the Rock&Cars festival in France when he was struck by falling tree branches. He was 54 years old and enjoying life, according to Joanne Allen, the sister of his partner, Hayley Wright. Allen described Knight as fit, healthy, happy, and full of life, noting his charisma, humor, and passion.

He was deeply loved and will be greatly missed. Haley shared on Instagram that he was incredibly talented and could turn his hand to anything. He was a wonderful friend and devoted dog owner, but above all, he was her everything, and she says life will never be the same without him.

A company celebration in January 2024 turned into a disaster. As part of the 25th-anniversary event for Chicago software company Vistex, CEO Sanjay Shah and President Vishwanath Raju Datla were meant to descend in an iron cage onto a stage at a party in India, according to a company representative who spoke with The Times of India. However, the wires supporting the cage broke, and the two executives fell onto the concrete stage.

Sanjay, age 56, died at the hospital after the accident, according to reports. Vishwanath, 52, suffered a serious head injury and sadly died several months afterward.

In a 2022 Instagram video with UNICEF, Orlando Bloom revealed that when he was 19, he fell three stories from a window and broke his back. He was attempting to climb onto a rooftop terrace with friends when the drainpipe he was holding onto gave way. Despite breaking several vertebrae, he was incredibly lucky to survive with his spinal cord still functioning.

He explained that doctors initially told him, while he was hospitalized, that he might never walk again. This was the start of a difficult process of understanding how past patterns in his life had contributed to a series of accidents, ultimately culminating in a life-threatening back injury.

After leaving the hospital wearing a back brace and dealing with a lot of physical and emotional pain, he immediately started going out and partying—still wearing the brace, he told GQ in 2005. It took a few months for him to accept this new reality and decide he wanted to make the most of it.

He said the experience completely changed his perspective on life. He realized he hadn’t fully appreciated things until he almost lost everything. He used to be a reckless driver and motorcyclist, always pushing his limits, not for show, but because he enjoyed the thrill. Now, though, he’s much more relaxed.

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2026-01-27 05:48