BOSTON -- The Massachusetts man who received partial face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital one year ago is recovering better than he and his doctors had hoped.

James Maki, 60, became only the second American to receive a face transplant during a 17-hour operation on April 8-9, 2009.

In an exclusive interview with NewsCenter 5’s Liz Brunner, Maki said he’s pleased with the results of the groundbreaking operation.

“I'm happy, I mean how can I be disappointed?”

Maki makes the trip from his Central Massachusetts home to the halls of Brigham and Women’s weekly. Doctors, nurses and staff have become as familiar as family. Maki jokes with them about new hair styles and even plays regular cribbage matches with one of his nurses.

“We developed a close relationship,” said Dr. Stefan Tullius, chief of transplant surgery. “It is wonderful to see how well he has recovered.”

From 2005 until his transplant in 2009 Maki lived with a severely disfigured face, the result of a fall onto an electrified subway rail. He lost his nose, cheeks, palate and upper lip.

The night of his accident Maki was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Registered nurse Jen Dainis will never forget it.

“He was one of my first patients here at the Brigham,” she said. “When I first saw him in 2005 I was petrified. With all the burns, and no face, it was pretty scary.”

Two years later Maki saw doctors on television talking about facial transplants. “And I just said to myself, ‘Boy I wish I was that lucky that I could get that surgery done to me.’”

Maki underwent a litany of tests and screenings to determine if he might be a good candidate for facial transplant.

Then in April 2009 Joseph Helfgot, a local father and husband, passed away after heart transplant surgery. His widow, Susan Whitman-Helfgot, knew that organ donation was the right decision.

Weeks after the operation, Maki, his doctors and Whitman-Helfgot held a news conference at which Maki told the world, “I will forever be grateful."

“I got Joseph's nose, and the rest of it, all this,” Maki told Brunner this month as he gestured to his cheeks. “He had rosacea, which I now have.”

Over the past year Maki and Whitman-Helfgot have formed a close friendship. The two are working together on a book about their shared experience that will be published this fall.

“I will always be indebted to her,” he said.

Maki is able to smell with his new nose. He’s also able to taste. “I think everything is close to working right or working alright,” he said.

Transplant surgeon Dr. Julian Pribaz said, “The most surreal experience was actually to see that wave of pinkness come across this piece of flesh, which was cold and white and suddenly turned pink.”

Despite Maki’s recovery, and his daily regimen of anti-rejection medications, Pribaz said it is still possible that Maki’s body could reject the new organs.

At some point he may need more operations to further improve the skin around his right eye, and to tighten the skin on his cheeks. His nerves and muscles are continuing to firm up, doctors say.

For Maki, the silver lining of his terrible accident is that it forced the Vietnam veteran to kick a three-decade heroin addiction.

“I am glad this accident happened and I'm glad it happened to me because I had a chance to get clean.”

He has lived drug-free for five years, but the cruel realities of life since that day still haunt him.

“The people that seem more affected by it are the kids, young kids. They'd look at me they'd laugh, you know,” Maki said. “That hasn't changed. I thought it would but it hasn't. They look at me, they laugh, go get their friends, they all laugh.”

“Is that disappointing to you that that aspect hasn't changed, when you thought it would?” Brunner asked.

“Yeah, a little bit,” said Maki. “I thought that was going to be over. Not that I'm really concerned with how I look but, you know, you'd like to look as good as you can.”

“He's come a long way,” said Dainis.

Maki maintains a healthy sense of humor and a great love for the Boston Red Sox.

“So where are they going to place this year?” Brunner asked Maki.

“They're going to place second because I don't think they can beat the Yankees.” Then, in case there was any question, Maki added for good measure, “And I hate the Yankees.”