BOSTON

Full Face Transplant Recipient Finds Love in Life's Darkest Period

Love for them is "hospital stays, being sick at 2 in the morning. It is having to go get blood work done at the drop of a hat"

A North Texas man who received the nation's first full face transplant found love during the darkest period of his life.

Dallas Wiens, who suffered severe burns to his entire face during a construction accident that also took his vision in 2009, fell in love with Jamie Nash in a support group for burn survivors. She suffered burns in a car crash.

The two say it was a whirlwind romance, and today their love is rooted in sacrifice.

"He pulls up my hair because I can't do it. He's my hands, and I'm his eyes," Jamie Nash Wiens said.

The burns on her body, she says, restrict her and hurt almost daily.

Dallas Wiens is blind and struggles to keep his face transplant healthy.

"There isn't anything I wouldn't do for her, and there isn't anything she wouldn't do for me," he said.

Ask them what love is and they will tell you sacrifice.

"It is hospital stays, being sick at 2 in the morning. It is having to go get blood work done at the drop of a hat," Nash Wiens said. "Love is pretty complicated, it's a lot to do."

Hospitals are sacred to the couple. They were married in one.

"The pastor of his church came down and married us in his hospital room, and no one knows that," Nash Wiens said. "That's just us."

The newlyweds were immediately flown to Boston, where Dallas Wiens was treated for face transplant rejection.

"He was Care-flighted and I was holding his hand the whole way," Nash Wiens said.

Faith, they say, binds them.

"Our faith is what keeps us strong. Faith and love," Nash Wiens said.

Her husband agrees.

"Where people see coincidence ... we see providence," he said.

"There is a greater plan in all of this, still we are learning. There is much more to be had in this life and it's a great adventure," Nash Wiens said.

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