Electrocuted soldier Mitch Hunter to receive face transplant

Electrocuted soldier who suffered horrific face injury saving woman is to receive face transplant.



A soldier who suffered horrific injuries while saving a woman in a car accident is to receive a life changing face transplant.

Mitch Hunter, from Indiana will be only the third person in America to undergo the complex operation.

The 29-year-old army private suffered terrible face injuries after being struck by a 10,000 volt live wire in 2001.

He was a passenger in a car that slammed into a utility pole bringing it down on top of the occupants.

Hunter pushed a live wire off the female driver, but in doing so came into contact with cable volts for five minutes, suffering terrible burns.

Overjoyed: Mr Hunter with his 3 month old son Clayton. He hopes the procedure will transform his life

The massive electric shock also led to him losing his leg and the fingers on one hand.

Hunter,from Speedway, Indiana, has since undergone 57 operations on his face following the accident 10 years ago.

Doctors at a the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have now told him he has been chosen for a face transplant.

'I think he’s the perfect patient we can help,' said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, the hospital’s director of plastic surgery transplantation. 'We’re very excited he’s coming.'


Mitch said he is thrilled with the news of the transplant.

He said:'Right now, I’m pretty content with life but I think it would give me that one extra step to have a better quality of life. I wouldn’t get the weird stares,'

Recalling the accident in 2001, he said he was driving with a friend and his girlfriend when their car hit a utility pole.

'He lost control around a turn and hit a utility pole, which cracked in half,' Hunter said.

'She got out and was hit by a live wire. I jumped out and pushed her away from the wire.'


The woman suffered third-degree burns on her foot but Hunter was jolted with 10,000 volts of electricity, which travelled up his foot, through his body and exited his right hand and face.

'Most of it exited my face,' Hunter said.

'I flat-lined twice on the way to the hospital. They used paddles to shock me back to life.'



Despite the disfiguring injuries Hunter has worked at an Amazon warehouse and celebrated the birth of his son Clayton.

Doctors at the Boston hospital have told Mitch he will be brought in for the face transplant once a suitable donor is found.

Mitchell said his only regret about having the life saving surgery is that someone has to die for him to receive it.

There have been 11 face transplants worldwide since the first in France in 2005.