HARBOR BEACH, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Michigan man who attempted to take his own life and survived is now the 18th person in the country to receive a face transplant.
Watch the story in the video player below:
Only about 50 people in the world have ever received a face transplant, and the story of how this man got to this point is full of miraculous moments.
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Derek Pfaff, 30, showed me the first version of himself. The one who in 2012, had a seemingly perfect life. He was a captain of his high school football team, he scored a touchdown in the game that won them the state championship.
"I have to say, I was very happy when I did, I’ll never forget that," said Derek.
He had a 4.0, amazing friends and family, blessings that followed him to his freshman year of college, but stress about maintaining his success followed him as well.
"I studied a lot. I put a lot of pressure on myself. If I didn't get an A on an exam, I felt like I failed," he said.
The pressure weighed heavily, but Derek tells me overall he was really quite happy, which makes his story perhaps even more shocking.
"I was on a spring break, I had came back from a ski trip up north with my friends. I had them over that night to play cards in the basement. And yeah, I don't remember getting the gun or doing any of that," he said.
Extended interview: Hear from Derek Pfaff talk about his journey
"So before that day, you never had any thoughts of suicide?" I asked him.
"No, never, never crossed my mind," said Derek.
Derek was 19. He had no drugs or alcohol in his system. Derek and Lisa had plans to go to church early the next day. She woke up and went to check on all her kids around 1:30 in the morning.
"I went to Derek's rooms first and opened his door, and he wasn't in his room, and that was really strange," said Lisa Pfaff. "I went through the house, I couldn't find him, and Jerry went outside, and then I heard this loud scream, ‘Derek, no, Derek no.' And he yelled, ‘call 9-1-1,’ and he said ‘Derek shot himself,'" recalled Lisa.
Lisa said he found Derek lying in a snowbank on March 5, 2014.
"He was in shorts and his t-shirt from what he had on that night, and the gun laying next to him," she said. "He had no face. There was no face, it was a gunshot wound right to his head and Jerry put him in the vehicle face down, which really was the first miracle, because if he would have put him face up in the vehicle, he would've drowned on the blood and choked to death on the two and a half miles just to get to our hospital."
No one thought there was any possibility that Derek would live; his parents called their priest, and his siblings prepared to say their goodbyes.
He was on life support for weeks, and then his mom asked him a question.
"One day I said, 'Derek, move your foot,' and his foot started moving," said Lisa. "We don't know what his quality of life is going to be. We don’t know how his mind is going to be, but there is something still there."
Derek said the only way he could communicate with people was to write on a whiteboard.
"One day, I wrote down, ‘where am I?’ Mom said, ‘Henry Ford Hospital.’ I said, ‘why am I here?’ She said, ‘you had an accident.’ OK, a car accident. I wrote that down, ‘did I hurt anyone?’ She told me what really happened. I wrote down, ‘I would never do that,'" said Derek.
The second version of Derek began.
"From 2014 through 2020 he underwent 58 surgeries," said Lisa.
I asked Derek what he was feeling during that time.
"Angry. I mean, why would I do that to myself? And I thought, ‘OK, I'm here. Let's make the best of it. Let's get back to normal as fast as we can, and relearn how to walk, talk write, how to swallow, drink out a water bottle.' All the little things you take for granted, I had to re-learn how to do," he said.
Somehow, Derek defied all odds and made it back home, but that doesn’t mean life got easier.
He no longer had a nose, he lost an eye, his teeth and lips were mostly gone. The second version of himself looked very different.
"I didn't go out in public," he said.
Lisa said when he did go out in public, "people would point and... you know, call him names, and it was just so hard," she said.
When he did dare to go out, for instance, back to his high school football field to watch games, he said he would hide.
"I’d go up in that tower right there," he told us.
Doctors tried everything to try and help Derek physically.
He tells me they moved part of his leg to his forearm, they attempted to grow a nose for him on his arm. Then, after 10 years, Lisa told Derek his only option left was a face transplant.
"I told her, 'we got this far, why stop? Let's finish it. Let's cross that finish line,'" Derek said.
The surgery at Mayo Clinic would make Derek the 18th person in the country to ever receive a face transplant. He would be one of only about 50 in the world to ever receive one.
"The day I was able to see my face, it was the 10-year anniversary of the night that I tried to take my life away. It was like full circle," said Derek.
"Do you think that was meant to be?" I asked.
"That was a sign from God, and truly ... he took a date that was very tragic and turned it into a good one," he said.
Lisa said people don't point at him anymore or do double-takes.
"It's just normalcy again," she said.
This is the third version of Derek.
He’s taken this gift and now travels as a guest speaker at high schools and events, advocating for suicide prevention.
"The thought of suicide never crossed my mind," he said. "But I'm pretty private at the time, I kept up my feelings and emotions inside. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it. I wish I would have now, mom, dad, whoever, got off my chest. I would have felt so much better."
His message now for others: "just please get it off your chest. Don't keep it in, you'll feel so much better."
Derek is now 30. He will soon have his last surgery, which includes getting new teeth, and having his trach taken out, allowing him to eat solid foods for the first time in 11 years.
He said he's most looking forward to eating pizza.
Derek has received hundreds of thank-you cards from those who have heard his story. He’s changed thousands of lives.
It’s the third and final version of Derek Pfaff — the best one yet.
"God chose our family for us to have to tell, for me to live. I truly believe that," he said.
Derek and Lisa never even mentioned it during our interview, but Derek’s face transplant and other surgeries have cost them well over $1 million.
If you'd like to help the family, you can find their GoFundMe here.
