Woman Meets The Man Who Received Her Dead Husband's Face

#1

Andy regretted his decision to commit suicide the second he pulled the trigger. It was a bad decision prompted by his depression. It was reported that when help arrived, Andy kept saying, “Please, please don’t let me die! I don’t want to die!”

#2

This is a photo of Andy before his suicide attempt. Did you know that suicide is one of the biggest killers of men under 50 years old? In a strange turn of events, another man's death changed Andy's life when his widow agreed to allow his face to be donated to help Andy.

#3

This was 21-year-old Calen Ross. He also suffered from depression before committing suicide in 2016. He lived 500 miles from where Andy had tried to take his own life ten years earlier.

#4

This is Rudy. Sadly, Rudy's wife Lilly was eight months pregnant at the time of his suicide. She was strained with the task of planning the funeral of her high school sweetheart.

Before his death, Rudy registered himself as an organ donor. His wife agreed to allow doctors to use his face for a groundbreaking face transplant that would help Andy lead a normal life again.

#5

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota performed the face transplant. This is the same place where Lilly eventually met Andy 16 months after the surgery. The surgery took a grueling 56 hours to finish.

#6

As soon as Lilly set her eyes on Andy, she was overwhelmed with emotion. These two complete strangers were brought together by extraordinary circumstances. When they sat down to talk, Lilly reached out to touch the face that once belonged to the love of her life.

#7

Prior to this surgery, doctors made a number of attempts to reconstruct his face, but they were all unsuccessful. They even attempted to make a fake nose for him, but it frequently fell off. It left them with no other option but to attempt a full face transplant.

Andy says he can now eat food, finally, and his speech is much better. Due to the increase in his self-confidence, Andy was even promoted at work.

#8

The biggest thing that made the operation a success was that the two men were perfect matches in skin tone and facial structure.

“It’s a lot of emotion,” Andy said. “I’m happy, but at the same time I’m sad because I know they’ve lost somebody that meant a lot to them. I guess it’s more of a relief than anything to get to finally get to know Lilly and meet Leonard and just thank them.”

#9

Andy was not the only one that Rudy helped in death. Many of his organs were donated to people in desperate need. His wife, Lilly, has reached out to every single one of them so that one day she can share with her son all of the people his dad saved.

#10

Here, you can watch the touching video of Lilly and Andy's meeting. You may want to go ahead and grab a box of tissues before clicking that play button, though.

#11

Organ donation does not just save lives, it really transforms them. Sadly, a ton of people die while waiting on suitable donors, so when someone is lucky enough to finally find one, it feels almost like a second chance at life. Most will now live their lives to the fullest and enjoying every single moment.

The teen in this video was so excited that a donor was found that he began to dance. I hope these incredible stories encourage you to check that organ donor box on the back of your ID or drivers license. Your donation, as your last act on Earth, could save so many lives. Just think about that.