Hersh is a professor in the department of oral and maxillofacial surgery and pharmacology at Penn Dental Medicine in Philadelphia.

“You guys saved my life,” a broadly smiling Coleman told Dr. Ben Johnson of Pacific Northwest Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons, who performed the seven-hour surgery.

“Such a mismatch may well lead to catastrophic bodily injury, including a variety of neurological, ophthalmological, orthopedic and maxillofacial injuries,” they wrote.