Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly has been released from the hospital as he continues recovering from a massive surgery to reconstruct his upper jaw. Kelly’s entire upper jaw was removed and replaced with part of his leg bone last month.
Kelly originally had surgery in 2015 to remove cancer from one side of his upper jaw. It was the second time Kelly had been diagnosed with the disease following a battle in 2013. After dealing with severe pain from the missing piece of his jaw, Kelly scheduled this replacement surgery but more cancer was discovered this January. It was decided that instead of replacing half of his upper jaw, they would remove the cancer and replace his entire upper jaw at the same time.
After weeks of social media pseudo-silence, where they didn’t show images of Kelly’s swollen face following surgery, his family began sharing images after his tracheotomy and feeding tubes were removed and Kelly could breathe through his mouth again. The upper jaw swelling is still very evident in the video shared below, and Kelly won’t be eating solid food anytime soon, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.
On Saturday, Kelly was discharged from the New York City hospital “with a swollen smile and a cane in his hand” but will stay in that area for two more weeks before heading back to Buffalo.