JOE and Jessica have been together for over two years after meeting online. Joe messaged Jessica on Instagram after realising they shared the same dog. After chatting for a few weeks on messenger, Jessica drove over an hour to meet Joe for their first date and the pair have never looked back. 6 months before the couple's meeting, Joe had undergone the world's first face and double hand transplant. He explained: "I was driving after a night shift job home from work and I fell asleep at the wheel. I hit a curb and a car flipped a couple of times [then] caught on fire. I woke up from my coma and the hospital." Continuing he said, "The burns I had were third-degree, 80% of my whole body." Jessica has always looked past Joe’s scars and loves him for who he is as a person. However, they receive trolling daily as the couple’s social media presence grows. Jessica elaborated: "People don’t think our relationship is legitimate and real. [They claim] I’m a gold-digger, I’m attention seeking, doing this for clout." Joe is criticised for his appearance, with some cruelly commenting that he looks like "Chucky". But he tries to brush off these remarks telling the trolls: "You can’t judge a book by its cover. We know what we’re doing and they’re gonna judge us no matter what. So let them judge and just keep on going with your own life, don’t worry about it."
Follow Jessica here -
Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicakoby?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicakoby?_t=8f3Wlg329l5&_r=1
And Joe here -
Instagram: https://instagram.com/joeroydimeo?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joestransplantjourney?_t=8f3X0qPan8A&_r=1
YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@Joseph_DiMeo?si=bRFsoHy8t26O19-9
Follow Jessica here -
Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessicakoby?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicakoby?_t=8f3Wlg329l5&_r=1
And Joe here -
Instagram: https://instagram.com/joeroydimeo?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joestransplantjourney?_t=8f3X0qPan8A&_r=1
YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@Joseph_DiMeo?si=bRFsoHy8t26O19-9
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FunTranscript
00:00 This is Joe. He fell in love with Jessica.
00:09 I survived 8% burns on my body. I was the first successful face and double hand transplant
00:14 in the world.
00:15 I read Joe's story. I was inspired. I knew I liked him more than just a friend.
00:20 But although the couple have found happiness with each other, many people do not believe
00:25 their relationship can be legitimate.
00:28 People say I look like Chucky.
00:30 People don't think our relationship is real.
00:33 Attention seeking, doing this for clout. You don't love him, you love the attention you
00:37 get for being with him.
00:38 This guy said just end it.
00:42 I was leaving a night shift job. I was driving home from work and I fell asleep at the wheel.
00:49 I hit a curb and my car flipped a couple of times. I caught on fire. I woke up three and
00:55 a half months later from a coma in the hospital.
00:59 The burns I had were 80% of my whole body.
01:02 Third degree burns. I went through like 20, 21 procedures. Most of them were skin grafts.
01:10 I was the first successful face and double hand transplant in the world.
01:16 Joe and I met on Instagram. I read about his story while working as a nurse. I was working
01:21 on a transplant floor, so I was very familiar with all that was going on in the world of
01:25 transplant. I read Joe's story and I was inspired and I wanted to know more.
01:31 I wasn't really looking to date at that time. I was still going out with my friends. I was
01:35 still social in a way, but I wasn't looking for love.
01:39 She followed me on Instagram first and then I DMed her about our dog saying I liked her
01:43 dog because we had the same type of breed.
01:45 Joe and I bonded over growing up with Boston Terriers. We both had one growing up and then
01:50 we both currently have one.
01:52 We really just bonded over them and just started talking every day and didn't stop talking.
01:58 I actually never got any hate in public before. I don't know, because I like intimidating
02:02 a person. I'm big and stuff like that, but online, almost every day, people like pick
02:07 at me.
02:08 People don't say it or do anything in public because that's just how people are. They're
02:13 scared. It's easy to be a bully when you don't have a picture up or your name on, but people
02:19 will say pretty mean things about us as a couple, me as a person, Joe as a person.
02:26 I'm a gold digger. I'm attention seeking, doing this for clout. He's rich. He must have
02:33 money. Someone said, "No, for real, because this is no way to live," saying, implying
02:39 that Joe's life isn't worth living.
02:42 You did this for attention. You don't love him. You love the attention you get for being
02:45 with him.
02:47 Matt was a very public person. She looks like a mom. She's a poster kid on social media.
02:54 I think that's interesting when people are that public online and that cool as well.
03:01 This guy said, "Just end it." I would have f*cked myself. For me, that's insane because
03:07 people do end their life because of stuff like that. Good thing Joe is strong. He's
03:14 never once thought like that.
03:16 One man told Joe to break up with me. Just weird stuff like that.
03:21 People say, "I look like Chucky." It gets boring other than bothering me because I can
03:28 come up with a lot more things to say about myself. It just gets boring after a while,
03:33 the insults.
03:34 Here's a comment that doesn't affect our relationship at all. It does get to her a lot more because
03:39 they do attack her more because she's a girl. It's a lot easier to attack a girl than it
03:43 is a guy.
03:45 I could show you some reply videos that I've made to nasty comments.
03:50 Comments like this are entertaining. This person is either an adult that is jealous,
03:55 that doesn't have love like Joe and I do. Thank you again and have a good day, okay?
04:00 So even though we get bad comments on social media, we still get some positive ones. The
04:04 positive definitely outweighs the negative.
04:07 "True love. God bless you." People just saying that they're going to watch us on TV.
04:12 "You guys rock. So proud of you."
04:15 I had one comment saying that my story and positivity helped them not commit suicide
04:21 and I thought, "That's pretty cool that my story can do that." I help people that don't
04:25 need to have burns. It keeps me going too.
04:28 We're going to call my friend Alyssa to catch up and to discuss how she felt about Joe when
04:32 we first met. Alyssa is one of my best friends. She's someone that's very close to me. If
04:37 I have something going on, I'll tell her about it. She knew about Joe from the start.
04:41 Hey! What's up girl? What's up guys?
04:45 So what did you think about Joe when I first told you about him?
04:48 My first thought was just like, "Okay, I'm protective of my best friend. So who is this
04:52 guy? I got to know everything about him. I got to know what his intentions are." My only
04:56 concern was this is different. You met Joe online, he got in this accident and I was
05:02 just wondering, "Is that what you guys are going to talk about? How is their relationship
05:06 going to be? Is it going to be an issue? Is it going to be not an issue?" Other than that,
05:10 I was just happy that you guys got along really well. You guys seemed to have similar interests.
05:15 The whole Boston Terrier thing, I was like, "Okay, yeah, game over. Let's go." But then
05:20 yeah, just knowing more and more about Joe, he just seemed like a really cool guy. I was
05:23 like, "Okay, I trust this guy with my best friend." He was a little quiet, but now I
05:28 feel like Joe and I have hung out a couple more times. So now we're getting to break
05:32 the ice a little bit more, hang out. So it was great. I love Joe.
05:37 Joe's story was inspiring for so many reasons. I think what most inspired me was when Joe
05:45 said that they asked him, "Why did you want to do the hand transplant?" His first reaction
05:50 was, "I wanted to get back to work." And I thought that was super inspiring that someone
05:54 that young could think that far ahead and not be resentful. So I'm a registered nurse.
06:00 And when I met Joe, I had been working on a transplant floor. Joe was never my patient
06:06 though. A lot of people will assume that at one point Joe was my patient and we started
06:11 dating, but I'm not that kind of nurse. So what I'm doing right now to Joe is called
06:17 lymphatic massage training. Any major surgery is going to result in some swelling and the
06:22 swelling is because you're disrupting the lymphatic system when you're operating on
06:27 someone. So just like blood needs to travel in your body, fluid needs to travel in your
06:31 body. And when they did Joe's surgery, they probably disrupted a lot of that. The point
06:36 is just to kind of help bring the fluid down. I'm not a professional at it. I'm just kind
06:42 of learning as I go. I don't want a massage. Yeah, I think it feels good. I mean, it's
06:49 like a bonding moment too. You know, Joe's very independent. It's not like he can't function
06:54 without me because he can, but I'm just kind of there to help him along the way. I wake
07:00 up at 4 30 in the morning to go to work and when I get home, Joe will have dinner ready.
07:05 He cleans the house. We both help each other and I think that's how every relationship
07:10 should be. The way Jessica helped me, that's my life is she'll open like tight jars for
07:15 me and then pick up little things for me, little small things that add up to big things.
07:20 I think we work well together when we talk about a future. We both want the same things.
07:25 Joe keeps me grounded. It's a good partnership. It's a good, it's a healthy relationship.
07:29 You can't really judge a book by its cover because like we know what we're doing and
07:33 if you let it judge us, you know, they're going to judge us no matter what. So let it
07:37 let them judge and just keep on going with your own life. Just don't worry about it.
07:41 Our future is going to be pretty exciting. We're taking some steps right now to buying
07:44 a house. Hopefully I can get like another dog. Raising a puppy together. I think that'll
07:49 be pretty fun to see Joe take that authority figure role because he's just a strong person
07:55 and I think we could all learn a lot from Joe.
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