A 41-year-old volunteer firefighter from Mississippi now lives with the face of a 26-year-old Brooklyn bike mechanic.
A plastic surgeon at the New York University Langone Medical Centerperformed the "most extensive" face transplant surgery in history, according to the hospital.
In 2001, when Patrick Hardison entered a burning home on a rescue search, the roof collapsed on him and his firefighter's mask burned onto his face, said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, who led the team of more than 150 staff members at NYU.
Hardison held his breath and jumped out a window.
He was left with disfiguring burns across his entire face, head, neck, and upper torso. He lost his eyelids, ears, lips, and most of his nose, as well as his hair, including his eyebrows.
- The firefighter will take drugs to keep his body from rejecting his face for the rest of his life
- After Hardison had more than 70 surgeries, a member of his church in Senatobia, Mississippi, saw stories about a transplant performed by Rodriguez, who was then at the University of Maryland Medical Center.The church member reached out to Rodriguez, who later moved to NYU.After waiting for more than a year, a donor was finally found: David Rodebaugh, a 26-year old bike mechanic who died in a biking accident on August 12, and whose heart, liver, kidney, eyes and bones went to other recipients.Hardison's surgery took place two days later. It required 12 hours in the operating room to remove Rodebaugh's face and bring it to Hardison's operating room.
