Patrick Hardison got badly hurt in a house fire while trying to save a woman he thought was trapped inside.
This brave man’s whole face and head were burned to the third degree, so for years, he went around town with a baseball cap, sunglasses, and fake ears.
Patrick said that kids would run away when they saw him, but in 2015, his life changed again for the better when he got the most complete face transplant ever done.
Sources said that Hardison had a 50/50 chance of living through the face transplant. The procedure went well, even though it took more than 100 people working in two teams for 26 hours. Patrick Hardison lives with his wife and children, whom he loves very much.
Here is everything you need to know about Patrick’s amazing life, including photos of him now.
We now know a lot about how the body works. All doctors, nurses, surgeons, and other medical professionals are real heroes because they go above and beyond to help patients get better. Also, it’s amazing how much can be done today to save a life. Take, for example, surgeons who can move organs like hearts and kidneys from one person to another.
Patrick Hardison got a new face from another person.
With the skills that experts now have, it is even possible to completely change a person’s look for those who need it. In 2005, Isabelle Dinoire became the first person to receive a face transplant. Since then, doctors have been able to successfully perform face transplant surgery on other patients. In 2015, Patrick Hardison became the first person in the United States to have a face transplant. This was another one of the world’s most unusual surgeries.
Patrick was a loving father who, like any other caring parent, was interested in his kids’ activities outside of school and liked spending time with his family. The volunteer fireman made it his goal to help his town in any way he could, and he did so every time.
But on a certain day in 2001, he and his family’s lives would be changed forever.
When Patrick was sent to a house fire, he got severe burns all over his upper body, including his head and neck. The fire also destroyed most of the tissue in his nose, ears, lips, and eyelids.
It seems like he would have to spend his whole life dealing with kids avoiding him and other parents pointing and talking behind his back. But in 2015, the most complete face transplant ever was done.
Given how hard the surgery was, Patrick only had a 50/50 chance of living. He has a whole new face now, and it makes him look even better than before.
Patrick Hardison, who was born and raised in Mississippi, used to be a volunteer firefighter. In 2001, a terrible thing happened when he went to a house fire.
Face burns caused by a house fire.
Hardison was in the house when it burned down and fell on top of him.
Hardison said,
[My mask] was melting to my face. My hose [was] already melted.
Patrick was able to escape through a window, but he was badly hurt and had burns on his head and upper body.
Jimmy Neal, who was the first person on the scene and a friend, told how he saw Hardison after the accident:
For somebody who does what we do for a living, I’ve never seen anybody burned that bad that was still alive.
The whole of the father’s face and his scalp were burned to the third degree. He also got burns on his face, neck, and upper body. The fire not only burned off his ears and lips but also most of his nose and the skin on his eyelids.
As time went on, Patrick had a hard time accepting the way he looked. Even just being in the same room as his kids or by himself became a living nightmare for him.
Have given up on living a normal life.
Patrick never went anywhere without his trademark baseball cap, sunglasses, and prosthetic ears that were made with great care.
You go to the ball field, you have to prepare yourself for the kid that goes running off screaming.
Patrick had to deal with being uncomfortable and people staring at him for a long time whenever he went out in public. He had given up on ever having a normal life and started to think that his damaged appearance was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life.
Then, at some point, one of their friends met Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez. He worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Since this wasn’t Rodriguez’s first face transplant, they started looking for a good match for Patrick.
David Rodebaugh gave his face to be used on Patrick Hardison.
Hardison had been looking for volunteers for a year and had only found two people who were willing to help. The first one was a pretty good match, but the tissue profile was not even close.
The second candidate showed a lot of promise. The man’s family, however, took him out of the running.
Hardison was almost ready to say that he might not be able to get a face transplant. Then, all of a sudden, another possible donor showed up. A match had been found, according to LiveOnNY, a non-profit that organizes organ donations in the New York region. The face belonged to David Rodebaugh, who was 26 and had a severe head injury from a bike accident that left him brain-dead.
David’s mother, Nancy Millar, chose to give away his organs, like his liver, heart, and kidneys, after he died. She also decided to give his face to a hospital.
Millar said,
I said, ‘You better save his face. He has the face of a porcelain doll.’ And he’s a donor — we had talked about it.
When she found out about Patrick and the possibility of a face transplant, she didn’t think twice about what to do. She thought it was David’s chance to live.
Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez called together the 100-person medical staff, and they all worked to get Hardison ready for surgery. It was the biggest soft tissue face transplant that had ever been done, and it took 26 hours to finish.
Even though the treatment worked very well, Patrick still had a long way to go. During the first week after the surgery, he had late-night scares like changes in his blood pressure and an unstable airway.
Because of his new face, he had trouble being calm and sometimes got angry because he had to relearn how to speak and swallow. He couldn’t even close his mouth because his face was so swollen.
“They have given me a new life”
In spite of everything, the surgery changed his life. Patrick was happy to see his family again, and he also got to meet David Rodebaugh’s mother, Nancy Millar. After the surgery, they had an emotional first meeting, and Nancy told them she had one request.
Millar said,
I said, ‘Can I kiss your forehead?’. That’s the one thing I wanted to do because every night before David went to bed when he was little, I kissed his forehead.
It’s been seven years since Patrick got a new face. His life has changed a lot since then. He and Chrissi were married for ten years, but they broke up a year after the surgery.
The father of five now wants to use his recovery and journey to show that it’s never too late to give up. Patrick is always upbeat and wants to help people who have been hurt in ways that make them unable to work.
I’ve bought my own place, working on getting a house built. I’m working on a book,
he said.
