Full-Face Transplant Patient Dallas Wiens Gets Married
Dallas Wiens married Jamie Nash who he met in a support group for burn victims.
April 1, 2013 — -- Dallas Wiens, the first U.S. man to receive a full face transplant, has married a woman who he met in a burn victims support group.
Wiens, 27, married Jamie Nash, 29, in Forth Worth, Texas, on Saturday with about 200 guests looking on.
Wiens suffered life-threatening burns to his head when the boom lift he was operating near a church drifted into a nearby power line in 2008.
The life-threatening accident and the 22 surgeries that followed left Wiens with a face void of features short of a lipless mouth and a small goatee.
In March 2011, a team of more than 30 doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists at Brigham and Woman's Hospital in Boston worked for more than 17 hours to give him a new face, complete with skin and the muscles and nerves needed to animate it.
The bride was badly burned on her arms and back in a 2010 car accident. The couple met in a burn victims support group, according to ABC News' Dallas-Forth Worth affiliate WFAA.
The wedding took place at the same church where Wiens was burned.
"It was just really nice, simple," Ridglea Baptist Church Pastor Scott Cox told ABCNews.com of the ceremony he officiated.
Cox was at the church the day Wiens was injured, arriving there moments after the horrific accident. He was thrilled when Wiens called a few months ago to ask if Cox would perform the marriage.
"I was there when they were putting him in a life flight helicopter on the parking lot and watching all that and praying that he would even live, which was very doubtful," he said. "Seeing him standing in front of the church getting married and happy is quite something to see."
Wiens' mother told ABCNews.com the family is declining to comment on the wedding at this time.
The couple are planning on sharing their wedding footage on a reality show about people who survive tragedies and go on to help others, according to WFAA.
Additional reporting by ABC News' Katie Moisse.
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