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\n\nPatrick Hardison received devastating injuries in a house fire as he attempted to rescue a woman he believed to be trapped in the blaze.\n This brave man was left with third-degree burns to his entire face and scalp \u2013 for years he wore a baseball cap, sunglasses, and prosthetic ears in public.\n Patrick recalled children running away when they saw him, but his life changed again in 2015 when he underwent the most extensive face transplant ever.\n As per reports, Hardison had a 50\/50 chance of surviving the face transplant. However, the surgery \u2013 which took 26 hours and more than 100 people working in two teams \u2013 was a success. Today, Patrick Hardison is living life alongside his beloved wife and children.\n Here\u2019s all you need to know about his incredible story \u2013 and what Patrick looks like today.\n Today, we have so much knowledge about the human body. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, and all others in the field of medicine are true heroes, doing everything they can to help people get better. Moreover, it\u2019s mind-blowing what can be done to save a life these days. Take for example, surgeons who can replace a heart or a kidney.\n With the knowledge experts have today, it\u2019s even possible to change an entire face for people in need. Face transplants have been performed since 2005, when Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to receive one. In 2015, another very special face transplant was performed in the US, when Patrick Hardison became the first American to undergo the procedure.\n Like any other loving father, Patrick attended his children\u2019s sporting activities, and liked spending time with his family. The volunteer fireman always endeavored to help his community in any way he could.\n One day in 2001, though, the lives of he and his family would change forever.\n Patrick was called out to a house fire, where he sustained extensive facial burns to his upper torso, head, and neck. The blaze also claimed his ears, lips, most of his eyelid tissue, and most of his nose.\n It seemed as though he was destined to face a life of children running away from him and others parents whispering and pointing. But in 2015, the most extensive face transplant ever performed became a reality.\n Patrick had only a 50\/50 chance of surviving the procedure, such was its complexity. Today, he has an\u00a0entirely new face\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and looks nothing short of incredible. Here\u2019s all you need to know about the mind-blowing story of Patrick Hardison.\n Patrick Hardison from Mississippi worked as a volunteer firefighter earlier on in his life. In 2001, he responded to a house fire when a horrible accident occurred.\n Hardison was inside a burning home when it collapsed on top of him.\n \u201c[My mask] was melting to my face,\u201d Hardison said. \u201cMy hose [was] already melted.\u201d\n He managed to escape through a window, but his head and upper body were already on fire, and Patrick suffered horrific injuries.\n \u201cFor somebody who does what we do for a living, I\u2019ve never seen anybody burned that bad that was still alive,\u201d friend and first responder Jimmy Neal\u00a0recalled\u00a0of\u00a0seeing Hardison after the accident.\n The father had third-degree burns on his entire face and scalp. In addition, he sustained facial burns to his head, neck, and upper torso. The fire also claimed his ears, lips, most of his nose, and even most of his eyelid tissue.\n \u201cI didn\u2019t actually see myself until probably November. I got injured in September,\u201d Hardison told\u00a0Fox News. \u201cThey had cut a little pinhole in one of my eyelids because they had everything covered, skin graft. I looked in the mirror and all I could do, I said, \u2018this is it? I can\u2019t do this,’\u201d he recalled.\n A new life awaited Hardison. He underwent 71 surgeries and several other procedures, but he was still unable to form normal facial expressions. Patrick couldn\u2019t eat or laugh without feeling pain, and he couldn\u2019t even blink or close his eyes.\n Surgeons were eventually able to put together flaps of skin to protect his vision. Still, he remained at risk of slowly but surely going blind.\n As the years went by, Patrick had difficulties accepting his appearance. Just being with his children \u2013 or by himself, for that matter \u2013 became a nightmare. People pointed at him, and the children were scared.\n Patrick always wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, as well as specially designed prosthetics that replaced his ears.\n \u201cI had kids. It was just a tough time. I never got a day off from the injury. When you walk out in public, it was daily. And, you know, it\u2019s just so \u2014 there\u2019s no way to explain everything,\u201d he\u00a0said.\n \u201cYou go to the ball field, you have to prepare yourself for the kid that goes running off screaming.\u201d\n For years, Patrick battled pain and staring from people when walking down the street. He was losing all hope of living an ordinary life, and started to think that his disfigured appearance was one he would be cursed with forever.\n But as time went by, surgeons developed new methods for face transplants. Finally, in 2005, Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to have a face transplant. Hardison, though, had given up hope of getting the help he desperately wanted.\n Then, one day, a friend stumbled across Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, who worked at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Rodriquez had performed a face transplant before, and so the search began to find Patrick a donor.\n After a year, Hardison\u2019s search had turned up just two potential donors. The first one was a good match \u2013\u00a0but the tissue profile was not.\n The second candidate looked very promising. However, the man\u2019s family withdrew him from consideration.\n Hardison was preparing to accept that he might never get a face transplant. Then, out of the blue, another potential donor came to light. LiveOnNY, a nonprofit that coordinates organ donations in the New York area, had found a match. The face belonged to David Rodebaugh a 26-year-old who had sustained a massive head injury in a bike accident and had been declared brain dead.\n After David passed away, his mother, Nancy Millar, decided to donate her son\u2019s organs, including liver, heart, and kidneys. More important, she decided to also donate his face.\n \u201cI said, \u2018You better save his face. He has the face of a porcelain doll.\u2019 And he\u2019s a donor \u2014 we had talked about it,\u201d Millar told\u00a0People.\n She didn\u2019t hesitate for a second when she heard about Patrick and the possibility of him getting a face transplant. For her, it was a chance for David to live on.\n \u201cWhen I met Patrick, I saw this\u00a0strength, this strong, manly, burly kind of energy in him \u2014 that David had,\u201d she recalled.\n \u201cDavid wanted to be a firefighter, an I knew if this guy was a firefighter \u2014 he was willing to walk into a fire to save people and risk his own life \u2014 then he had the strength that David had.\u201d\n Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez assembled his team of 100 doctors, nurses, and other medical aides, and together they prepared for Hardison\u2019s surgery. It was the most extensive soft tissue face transplant ever performed \u2013 the surgery took a whopping 26 hours.\n The medical team gave Hardison a new face, scalp, ears, and ear canals. They selected portions of bone from the chin, cheeks, and the entire nose. Not only that, but Patrick also received new eyelids, returning to him the ability to blink naturally.\n But the surgery was not without risk. Due of the nature of the highly complex procedure, Patrick only had a 50\/50 chance of surviving.\n \u201cEverything in life has a risk,\u201d Hardison told\u00a0Time Magazine.\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s your time to go, you\u2019ll go\u2014whether you\u2019re walking down the street and get hit by a car or you\u2019re lying on the operating table.\u201d\n Prior to the surgery, Patrick met his family for what could\u2019ve been the last time.\n His eldest daughter Alison wondered why her father was so desperate to go through with the procedure.\n \u201cHe said, \u2018I won\u2019t have to wear a ball cap and I won\u2019t have to wear my sunglasses. I\u2019ll look normal whenever I get to walk you down the aisle,’\u201d Alison\u00a0recalled\u00a0Patrick saying.\n \u201cAnd that right then pretty much sealed the deal for me.\u201d\n Fortunately, the procedure was a big success, though it was only the start of a very long journey for Patrick. During the first week following the operation, he endured late night scares involving fluctuations in blood pressure and an unstable airway.\n The new face also meant that he had to learn how to speak and swallow again, and he suffered from both anxiety and had bouts of frustration because of it. He couldn\u2019t even close his mouth because his face was so swollen.\n Despite all that, the surgery was life-changing. Not only did Patrick experience the joy of seeing his family again, but he also got to meet David Rodebaugh\u2019s mother, Nancy Millar. Their first encounter after the surgery was an emotional one, and it turned out Nancy had one request.\n \u201cI said, \u2018Can I kiss your forehead?’\u201d Millar said. \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing I wanted to do because every night before David went to bed when he was little, I kissed his forehead.\u201d\n \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting a year to meet her. I\u2019m just very grateful,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cWithout her, it wouldn\u2019t have been possible. It\u2019s like she\u2019s family. We connected that easily.\u201d\n It\u2019s now been seven years since Patrick underwent his face transplant. Since then, his life has changed plenty \u2013 he and Chrissi divorced a year after the surgery, following ten years of marriage.\n Hardison\u2019s face healed nicely, and the swelling has gone down. Though he has to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life to stop his body\u2019s immune system from fighting the inserted transplant, it has given him the chance to live again.\n \u201cI am deeply grateful to my donor and his family,\u201d Hardison said in a\u00a0statement.\n \u201cEven though I did not know who they would be, I prayed for them every day, knowing the difficult decision they would have to make in order to help me. \u201c\n \u201cI hope they see in me the goodness of their decision. I also want to thank Dr. Rodriguez and his amazing team. They have given me more than a new face. They have given me a new life.\u201d\n Today, the father-of-five wants to use his journey and recovery to spread the message that it\u2019s never too late to give up. Patrick stands for hope, and he desires to help others struggling with debilitating injuries.\n \u201cI\u2019ve bought my own place, working on getting a house built. I\u2019m working on a book,\u201d Hardison told\u00a0Fox\u00a0in 2021.\n\n\n\nPatrick Hardison \u2013 face transplant\n
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Disfiguring injuries in a house fire\n
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Lost hope of living an ordinary life\n
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Patrick Hardison \u2013 face donor David Rodebaugh\n
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50\/50 chance of surviving the surgery\n
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\u201cThey have given me a new life\u201d\n
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Patrick Hardison today \u2013 pictures\n
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