I was stared at until I got a face transplant in 50-hour surgery – it’s the best present… now I’m looking for a wife
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LISA Pfaff watches as her son Derek lifted up the mirror and looked at his reflection. For the first time in years Derek smiles at what he sees and while it isn't a face he recognises, to him it means the whole world. “To see my son finally able to look in a mirror and be happy with what he sees is the best gift I could ever ask for,” Lisa, 55, says.
![[Derek Pfaff blew his face off while trying to take his own life]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/best-present-now-im-looking-958763925.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
“I hugged him tight as he told me he ‘looked OK again’. Just looking virtually normal again would open up so many doors for him.”. It was a far cry from when Lisa saw her son for the first time lying in a hospital bed after he’d attempted to take his own life with a shotgun.
![[His mum Lisa says that her son put a lot of pressure on himself. Derek seen here before the accident]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/best-present-now-im-looking-958760864.jpg?strip=all&w=609)
Lisa, and her husband Jerry, were parents to Derek, then 20, Justin, 22, Brandon, 16, Devin, 12, and their daughter Shaelyn, six, when life changed for the family who she describes as being 'pretty normal'. “We were a sporty bunch, and were always going out to some match or other at the weekends, cheering them on on the football or basketball pitches,” she says.
![[Thanks to an incredible face transplant, Derek now has a new face]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/best-present-now-im-looking-958760856.jpg?strip=all&w=947)
“And we loved camping too as a family - we’d pack our gear up at the weekend and head out to some beauty spot and spend time together. “Derek was a perfectionist - he hated it when he didn’t get things right and put a lot of pressure on himself - but apart from that, he was a popular guy with lots of friends and he loved playing football.
![[While his face is unrecognisable from his old appearance, Derek is thrilled to have a 'normal' appearance according to Lisa]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/best-present-now-im-looking-958760841.jpg?strip=all&w=647)
